
Qass 
Book. 



Gpiglitl^'i 



COP^IGHT D£POI»lt 




NATHAN EARLY 

Phototype frotn an Automatic Painting. (See page 196.) 



# 

n 



J 
TELEPATHY 

I 

AND 

THE SUBLIMINAL SELF 



AN ACCOUNT OF RECENT INVESTIGATIONS REGARDING 

HYPNOTISM, AUTOMATISM, DREAMS, PHANTASMS, 

AND RELATED PHENOMENA 



y/" BY 

R. OSGOOD MASON, A.M., M.D. 

Fellow of the New York Academy of Medicine 




>Ei 4 1807 ) 



^fn 



Li^^^' 



I- 



NEW YORK 

HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY 

1897 






Copyright, 1897, 

BY 

HENRY HOLT & CO. 



/>" 



PREFACE. 

To whatever conclusions it may lead us, there 
is no mistaking the fact that now more than ever 
before is the public interested in matters relating 
to the ** New Psychology." Scarcely a day passes 
that notice of some unusual psychical experience 
or startling phenomenon does not appear in 
popular literature. The newspaper, the magazine, 
and the novel vie with each other in their efforts 
to excite interest and attract attention by the dis- 
play of these strange incidents, presented some- 
times with intelligence and taste, but oftener with 
a culpable disregard of both taste and truth. 

The general reader is not yet critical regarding 
these matters, but he is at least interested, and 
desires to know what can be relied upon as estab- 
lished truth amongst these various reports. There 
is inquiry concerning Telepathy or Thought- 
Transference — is it a fact or is it a delusion ? Has 

Hypnotism any actual standing either in science 

iii 



\ 



IV PREFACE. 

or common sense ? What of Clairvoyance, 
Planchette, Trance and Trance utterances, Crystal- 
Gazing and Apparitions ? 

In the following papers intelligent readers, both 
in and out of the medical profession, will find 
these subjects fairly stated and discussed, and to 
some of the questions asked, fair and reasonable 
answers given. It is with the hope of aiding 
somewhat in the efforts now being made to rescue 
from an uncertain and unreasoning supernatural- 
i^ some of the most valuable facts in nature, and 
some of the most interesting and beautiful 
psychical phenomena in human experience, that 
this book is offered to the public. 

To such studies, however, it is objected by some 
that the principles involved in these unusual 
mental actions are too vague and the facts too new 
and unsubstantiated to be deserving of serious 
consideration ; but it should be remembered that 
all our knowledge, even that which is now 
reckoned as science, was once vague and tentative ; 
it is absurd, therefore, to ignore newly-found facts 
simply because they are new and their laws un- 
known; ijevertheless, in psychical matters espe- 
cially, this is the tendency of the age. 

But even if upon the practical side these studies 
should be deemed unsatisfactory, it would net 



PREFACE. V 

follow that they are without use or interest. It 
is a truism that our western civilization is over- 
intense and practical ; it is materialistic, hard, 
mechanical ; it values nothing, it believes in 
nothing that cannot be weighed, measured, an- 
alyzed, labelled and appraised ; — feeling, intuition, 
aspiration, monitions, glimpses of knov/ledge that 
are from within — not external nor distinctly 
cognizable, — these are all slighted, despised, 
trampled upon by a supercilious dilettanteism on 
the one hand and an uninstructed philistinism 
on the other, and the result has been a develop- 
ment that is abnormal, unsymmetrical, deformed, 
and tending to disintegration. 

To a few, oriental mysticism, to others the 
hasty deductions of spiritualism, and to many 
more the supernaturalism of the various religious 
systems, offer at least a partial, though often ex- 
aggerated, antidote to this inherent vice, because 
they all contemplate a spiritual or at least a 
transcendental aspect of man's nature in contrast 
to that which is purely material. But even these 
partial remedies are not available to all, and they 
are unsatisfactoiy to many. 

As a basis to a more symmetrical and per- 
manent development, some generally recognized 
facts relative to the constitution and action of 



Vi PREFACE. 

these more subtle forces in our being must be 
certified ; and as an introduction to that work, 
it is hoped that these studies in the outlying 
fields of psychology will not be found valueless. 

A portion of the papers here presented are 
republished, much revised, by courtesy of The 
New York Times, 

New York, October, i8q6. 



CONTENTS, 



CHAPTER I. 

PAGB 

Psycliical Research — Telepathy or Thought-Trans- 

f erence i 

CHAPTER II. 

Mesmerism and Hypnotism — History and Therapeutic 

Effects 28 

CHAPTER III. 
Hypnotism — Psychical Aspect 51 

CHAPTER IV. 
I^ucidity or Clairvoyance 74 

CHAPTER V. 
Double 6r Multiplex Personality 116 

CHAPTER VI. 

Natural Somnambulism — Hypnotic Somnambulism — 

Dreams 129 

CHAPTER VII. 

Automatism — Planchette. 151 

CHAPTER VIII. 

Automatic Writing, Drawing arid Painting 181 

vii 



viii CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER IX. 

PAGE 

Crystal-gazing * 198 

CHAPTER X. 
Phantasms 224 

CHAPTER XI. 
Phantasms, Continued 262 

CHAPTER XII. 
Conclusions 307 



CHAPTER I. 

PSYCHICAL RESEARCH — TELEPATHY OR 
THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

The status of the old-fashioned ghost story has, 
within the past ten years, perceptibly changed. 
Formerly, by the credulous generality of people, 
it was almost universally accepted without reason 
and without critical examination. It was looked 
upon as supernatural, and supernatural things 
were neither to be doubted nor reasoned about, 
and there the matter ended. 

On the other hand, the more learned and scien- 
tific, equally without reason or critical examina- 
tion, utterly repudiated and scorned all alleged 
facts and occurrences relating to the subject. 
" We know what the laws of nature are," they 
said, " and alleged occurrences which go beyond 
or contravene these laws are upon their face 
illusions and frauds." And so, with them also, 
there the matter ended. 

In the meantime, while the irreclaimably super- 



2 TELEPA THY AND THE SUBLIMINAL SELF. 

stitious and credulous on the one hand, and the 
unco-scientific and conservative on the other, 
equally without knowledge and equally without 
reason, have gone on beHeving and disbelieving, 
a large number of people — intelligent, inquiring, 
quick-witted, and reasonable, some scientific and 
some unscientific — have come to think seriously 
regarding unusual occurrences and phenomena, 
either witnessed or experienced by themselves or 
related by others, and whose reality they could 
not doubt, although their relations to ordinary 
conditions of life were mysterious and occult. 

In the investigation of these subjects some new 
and unfamiliar terms have come into more or less 
common use. We hear of mind-reading, telep- 
athy, hypnotism, clairvoyance, and psychical re- 
search, some of which terms still stand for some- 
thing mysterious, uncanny, perhaps even super- 
natural, but they have at least excited interest 
and inquiry. The subjects which they represent 
have even permeated general literature ; the 
novelist has made use of this widespread interest 
in occult subjects and has introduced many of 
the strange and weird features which they pre- 
sent into his department of literature. Some have 
made use of this new material without knowledge 
or taste, merely to excite wonder and attract the 



PRELIMINARY WORK. 3 

vulgar, while others use it philosophically, with 
knowledge and discrimination, for the purpose of 
educating their readers in a new and important 
department of knowledge and thought. 

Amongst the more scientific, societies have been 
formed, reports have been read and published, so 
that in scientific and literary circles as well as 
among the unlearned the subject has become one 
of interest. 

The object of these papers will be briefly to 
tell in connection with my own observations, what 
is known and what is thought by others who 
have studied the subject carefully, and especially 
what has been done by the English Society for 
Psychical Research and kindred societies. 

When an expedition is sent out for the purpose 
of exploring new and unknown regions, it is often 
necessary to send forward scouts to obtain some 
general ideas concerning the nature of the coun- 
try, its conformation, water-courses, inhabitants, 
and food supplies. The scouts return and report 
what they have discovered ; their reports are 
listened to with interest, and upon these reports 
often depend the movements and success of the 
whole expedition. It will easily be seen how 
important it is that the scouts should be intelli- 
gent, sharp-witted, courageous and truthful \ and 



4 TELEPATHY AND THE SUBLIMINAL SELF. 

it will also be evident that the report of these 
scouts concerning the new and unknown country 
is much more valuable than the preconceived 
opinions of geographers and philosophers, no mat- 
ter how eminent they may be, who have simply 
stayed at home, enjoyed their easy-chair, and de- 
clared off-hand that the new country was useless 
and uninhabitable. 

The outlying fields of psychology, which are 
now the subject of psychical research, are com- 
paratively a new and unexplored region, and until 
within a few years it has been considered a barren 
and unproductive one, into which it was silly, dis- 
reputable, and even dangerous to enter ; the re- 
gion was infested with dream-mongers, spiritual- 
ists, clairvoyants, mesmerists, and cranks, and the 
more vigorously it was shunned the safer would 
he be who had a reputation of any kind to lose. 

Such substantially was the condition of public 
sentiment, and especially of sentiment in strictly 
scientific circles, fourteen years ago, when the 
English Society for Psychical Research came into 
being. The first movement in the direction of 
systematic study and exploration in this new field 
was a preliminary meeting called by Prof. W. F. 
Barrett, Fellow of the Royal Society of Edin- 
burgh, and a few other gentlemen on Jan. 6, 1882, 



SOCIETY FOR PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 5 

when the formation of such a society was pro- 
posed ; and in the following month the society- 
was definitely organized and officers were chosen. 
The first general meeting for business and listen- 
ing to reports took place July 17th of the same 
year. 

The persons associated in this society were of 
the most staid and respectable character, noted 
for solid sense, and a sufficient number of them 
for practical work were also trained in scientific 
methods, and were already eminent in special 
departments of science. 

Prof. Henry Sidgwick, Trinity College, Cam- 
bridge, was President ; Prof. W. F. Barrett, 
F. R. S. E., Royal College of Science, Dublin, and 
Prof. Balfour Stewart, F. R. S., Owens College, 
Manchester, were Vice-Presidents, and among the 
members were a large number of well-known 
names of Fellows of various learned and royal 
societies, professional men, and members of Par- 
liament, altogether giving character to the society, 
as well as assuring sensible methods in its work. 
Among the subjects first taken up for examina- 
tion and, so far as possible, for experimental study, 
were the following : — 

(i) Thought-transference, or an examination 
into the nature and extent of any influence which 



6 TELEPATHY AND THE SUBLIMINAL SELF, 

may be exerted by one mind upon another, apart 
from any generally recognized mode of perception 
or communication. 

(2) The study of hypnotism and the forms of 
so-called mesmeric trance. 

(3) An investigation of well-authenticated re- 
ports regarding apparitions and disturbances in 
houses reputed to be haunted. 

(4) An inquiry into various psychical phenom- 
ena commonly called Spiritualistic. 

The first report made to the society was con- 
cerning thought-reading, or thought-transference, 
and was a description of various experiments un- 
dertaken with a view to determine the question 
whether one person or one mind can receive im- 
pressions or intelligence from another person or 
mind without communication by word, touch, or 
sign, or by any means whatsoever apart from the 
ordinary and recognized methods of perception, or 
the ordinary channels of communication. 

What is meant by thought-transference is per- 
haps most simply illustrated by the comm^on 
amusement known as the " willing game " ; It is 
played as follows : — 

The person to be influenced or " willed " is sent 
out of the room ; those remaining then agree 
upon some act which that person is to be willed 



THE " WILLING GAME:' 7 

to accomplish ; as, for instance, to take some par- 
ticular piece of bric-a-brac from a table or cabinet 
and place it upon the piano, or to find some article 
which has been purposely hidden. The person to 
be willed is then brought back into the room ; the 
leader of the game places one hand lightly upon 
her should-er or arm, and the whole company 
think intently upon the act agreed upon in her 
absence. If the game is successful, the person so 
willed goes, with more or less promptness, takes the 
piece of bric-a-brac thought of, and places it upon 
the piano, as before agreed upon by the company, 
or she goes with more or less directness and dis- 
covers the hidden article. Nervous agitation, ex- 
citement, even faintness or actual syncope, are 
not unusual accompaniments of the effort on the 
part of the person so willed, circumstances which 
at least show the unusual character of the per- 
formance and also the necessity for caution m 
conducting it. 

If. the game is played honestly, as it generally 
is, the person to be willed, when she returns to 
the room, is absolutely ignorant of what act she 
is expected to perform, and the person with whom 
she is placed in contact does not intentionally 
give her any clue or information during the prog- 
ress of the game. 



8 TELEPATHY AND THE SUBLIMINAL SELF, 

In the more formal experiments the person 
who is willed is known as the sensitive, subject, 
or percipient ; the person who conducts the ex- 
periment is known as the agent or operator. The 
sensitive is presumed to receive, in some unusual 
manner, from the minds of the agent and the 
company, an impression regarding the action to 
be performed, without communication between 
them in any ordinary manner. 

This is one of the simplest forms of thought- 
transference ; it is, of course, liable to many errors, 
and is useless as a scientific test. 

Bishop, Cumberland, and other mind readers 
who have exhibited their remarkable powers all 
over the world, were doubtless sensitives who 
possessed this power of perception or receiving 
impressions in a high degree, so that minute ob- 
jects, such as an ordinary watch-key, hidden in a 
barrel of rubbish in a cellar and in a distant part 
of an unfamiliar city, is quickly founds the sen- 
sitive being connected with the agent by the 
slightest contact, or perhaps only by a string or 
wire. 

The question at Issue in all these cases is the 
same, namely, do the sensitives receive their im- 
pressions regarding what they have to do from 
the mind of the agent by some process other 



DR. CARPENTER'S THEORY. 9 

than the ordinary means of communication, such 
as seeing, hearing, or touch ; or do they, by the 
exceeding delicacy of their perception, receive 
impressions from sHght indications unintentionally 
and unconsciously conveyed to them by the agent 
through the slight contact which is kept up be- 
tween them ? 

The opinion of a majority of scientific persons 
has been altogether averse to the theory of 
thought-transference from one mind to another 
without the aid of the senses and the ordinary 
means of communication ; and they have main- 
tained that intimations of the thing to be done 
by the sensitive were conveyed by slight muscular 
movements unconsciously made by the agent and 
perhaps unconsciously received by the sensitive. 
To explain, or rather to formulate these cases. 
Dr. William B. Carpenter, the eminent English 
physiologist, proposed the theory of " uncon- 
scious muscular action " on the part of the agent 
and " unconscious cerebration " on the part of 
the sensitive ; and his treatment of the whole 
subject in his '* Mental Physiology," which was 
published twenty years ago, and also in his book 
on " Mesmerism and Spiritualism," was thought 
by many to be conclusive against the theory 
of mind-reading or thought-transference. Espe- 



lo TELEPATHY AND THE SUBLIMINAL SELF, 

daily was this view entertained by the more con- 
servative portion of the various scientific bodies 
interested in the subject, and also by that large 
class of people, scientific and otherwise, who save 
themselves much trouble by taking their opinions 
ready made. 

It was a very easy way of disposing of the 
matter, so thoroughly scientific, and it did not 
involve the necessity of studying any new force 
or getting into trouble with any new laws of 
mental action ; it was simply delightful, and the 
physiologists rubbed their hands gleefully over 
the apparent discomfiture of the shallow cranks 
who imagined they had discovered something 
new. There was only one troublesome circum- 
stance about the whole affair. It was this: that 
cases were every now and then making their ap- 
pearance which absolutely refused to be explained 
by the new theory of Dr. Carpenter, and the only 
way of disposing of these troublesome cases was 
to declare that the people who observed them 
did not know how to observe, and did not see 
what they thought they saw. 

This was the state of the question, and this the 
way in which it was generally regarded, when it 
was taken up for investigation by the Society for 
Psychical Research. 



THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE CLASSIFIED. n 

Experiments on the subject of thought-trans- 
ference fall naturally into four classes : 

(i) Those where some prearranged action is 
accomplished, personal contact being maintained 
between the operator and the sensitive. 

(2) Similar performances where there is no con- 
tact whatever. 

(3) Where a name, number, object, or card is 
guessed or perceived and expressed by speech or 
writing without any perceptible means of ob- 
taining intelligence by the senses or through 
any of the ordinary channels of communica- 
tion. 

(4) Where the same ideas have occurred or the 
same impressions have been conveyed at the same 
moment to the minds of two or more persons 
widely separated from each other. 

The first and second of these classes are simply 
examples of the "willing game " carried on under 
more strict conditions, but they are not counted 
as of special value on account of the possibility of 
information being conveyed when contact is per- 
mitted, and by means of slight signals, mere move- 
ments of the eye, finger, or lip, which might 
quickly be seized upon and interpreted by the sen- 
sitive, even when there was no actual contact. The 
third and fourth class, however, seem to exclude 



12 TELEPA THY AND THE SUBLIMINAL SELF. 

these and all other ordinary or recognizable means 
of communication. 

The following are examples of the third class, 
namely, where some object, number, name, or card 
has been guessed or perceived without the aid of 
the senses, and without any of the ordinary means 
of communication between the operator and the 
subject. 

The first experiments here reported were made 
in the family of a clergyman, by himself, together 
with his five daughters, ranging from ten to seven- 
teen years of age, all thoroughly healthy persons, 
and without any peculiar nervous development. 
The daughters and sometimes, also, a young maid- 
servant, were the sensitives, and the clergyman, 
when alone with his family, acted as agent. The 
test experiments made in this family were con- 
ducted by two competent and well-qualified ob- 
servers, members of the society, and no member 
of the family was permitted to know the word, 
name, or object selected, except that the child 
chosen to act as sensitive was told to what class 
the object belonged ; for instance, whether it was 
a number, card, or name of some person or place. 

The child was then sent out of the room and 
kept under observation while the test object was 
agreed upon, and was then recalled by one of the 



MANNER OF EXPERIMENTING. 13 

experimenters ; and while giving her answers she 
"stood near the door with downcast eyes," and 
often with her back to the company. The experi- 
ments were conducted in perfect silence except- 
ing the child's answer and the '' right " or '* wrong " 
of the agent. 

It has been charged that these children, later, 
were caught signalling during the experiments. 
This is true by their own confession, but it is also 
true that there was no signalling during the earlier 
experiments, also that the signalling when used 
did not improve the results, and furthermore that 
after they began signalling the effort to keep the 
mind consciously active and acute during their 
trials injured the passive condition necessary for 
success, and eventually destroyed their sensitive- 
ness and thought-reading power altogether. 

Besides, most of the tests were made when only 
the one child was in the room, and, as will be no- 
ticed, many of the tests were of such a nature that 
signalling would be out of the question, especially 
with their httle experience and clumsy code. 

The following results were obtained, the name 
of the object agreed upon being given in 
italics : — 

A white-handled penknife. Was named and 
color given on the first trial. A box of almonds. 



14 TELEPATHY AND THE SUBLIMINAL SELF. 

Named correctly. A three-pen?iy piece. Failed. 
A box of chocolate, A button box. A petiknife, 
hidden. Failed to state where it was. 

Trial with cards, to be named : — 

Twoof chtbs. Right. Seven of diamonds. Right. 
Four of spades. Failed. Four of hearts. Right. 
King of hearts. Right. Two of diamonds. Right. 
Ace of hearts. Right. Nine of spades. Right. 
Five of diamonds. Four of diamonds (wrong); 
then four of hearts, (wrong) ; then five of dia- 
monds, which was right on the third trial. Two of 
spades. Right. Eight of diamonds. Wrong. Ace 
of diamonds. Wrong. Three of hearts. Right. 
Four of clubs. Wrong. Ace of spades. Wrong. 

The following results were obtained with ficti- 
tious names : — 

William Stubbs. Right. Eliza Holmes. Eliza 
H. Isaac Harding. Right. Sophia Shaw. Right. 
Hester Willis. Cassandra — then Hester Wilson. 
John f ones. Right. Timothy Taylor. Tom, then 
Timothy Taylor. Esther Ogle. Right. Arthur 
Higgins. Right. Alfred Henderson. Right. Auiy 
Frogmore. Amy Freemore, then Amy Frogmore. 
Albert Sfielgrove. Albert Singrore, then Albert 
Grover. 

On another occasion the following result was 
obtained with cards, Mary, the eldest daughter, 



RESULTS OF EXPERIMENTS. 15 

being the percipient : In thirty-one successive 
trials the first only was an entire failure, six of 
spades being given in answer for the eight of 
spades. Of the remaining thirty consecutive trials, 
in seventeen the card was correctly named on the 
first attempt, nine on the second, and four on the 
third. 

It should here be observed, that according to 
the calculus of probabilities, the chances that an 
ordinary guesser would be correct in his guess on 
the first trial is, in cards, of course, one in fifty- 
one, but in these trials, numbering 382 in all, and 
extending over six days, the average was one in 
three, and second and third guesses being allowed 
the successes were more than one in two, almost 
two in three. 

The chances against guessing the card cor- 
rectly five times in succession are more than 
1,000,000 to I, and against this happening eight 
times in succession are more than 142,000,000 to 
I, yet the former happened several times and the 
latter twice — once with cards and once with ficti- 
tious names, the chances against success in the 
latter case being almost incalculable. 

The following experiments were also made 
among many others, Miss Maud Creery being the 
percipient : — 



l6 TELEPATHY AND THE SUBLIMINAL SELF. 

*' (i) What town have we thought of ? A. Bux- 
ton : which was correct. 

" (2) What town have we thought of? A. Der- 
by. What part did you think of first ? A. 
Railway station. (So did I.) What next? A. 
The market-place. (So did 1.) 

" (3) What town have we thought of ? A. 
Something commencing with L. (Pause of a 
minute.) Lincoln. (Correct.) 

" (4) What town have we thought of ? A. 
Fairfield. What part did you think of first ? A. 
The road to it. (So did I.) What next? A. 
The triangular green behind the Bull's Head Inn. 
(So did I.) " 

In seeking an explanation for these remarkable 
results coincidence and chance may, it would 
seem, be utterly excluded. Touch and hearing 
must also be excluded, since the guesser did 
not come in contact with any person during the 
experiments, and they were conducted in perfect 
silence excepting the answers of the percipient or 
the " yes " or '' no " of the agent. 

We have left, then, only the unconscious indi- 
cations which might possibly be given b)^ look, 
movement of a finger, lip, or muscle by persons 
who were present especially on account of their 
desire and ability to detect any such communica- 



REASONABLE CONCLUSIONS. ly 

tion, and on account of their ability to avoid 
giving information in any such manner themselves. 

It seems, in fact, quite incredible that informa- 
tion thus conveyed could be sufficient to affect 
the result in so large a number of experiments, 
especially where the experiments included the 
names of places and fictitious names of persons. 
Even where signalling is successfully carried on, as, 
for instance, in stage tricks, it is a regular feat of 
memory accomplished between two people who 
have studied and practised it assiduously for a 
long time, while here were simply children, 
brought in contact, without rehearsal, with stran- 
gers, whose object it was to detect the trick if any 
were practised among them. 

We are forced, then, to the conclusion that the 
knowledge which these sensitives exhibited con- 
cerning the objects, names, or cards which were 
given them as tests, did not come to them by any 
ordinary sense of perception obtained either legit- 
imately or by trick, but came to them directly 
from the minds of other persons acting as agents 
and striving to impress them, and that this knowl- 
edge or these impressions were received by some 
means other than through the ordinary channels 
of communication. 

Another method of demonstrating thought- 

2 



i8 TELEPATHY AN^D THE SUBLIMINAL SELF. 

transference which should be mentioned here, is 
by means of diagrams. The experiment may be 
made as follows : — The percipient, being blind- 
folded, is seated at a table with his back to the 
operator, without contact and in perfect silence. 
A diagram — for instance, a circle with a cross in the 
centre — is distinctly drawn by a third person and 
so held as to be in full view of the operator, who 
looks at it in silence, steadily and with concen- 
trated attention. 

The impression made by the diagram upon the 
mind of the operator is gradually perceived by 
the percipient, who, after a time varying from a 
few seconds to several minutes, declares himself 
ready. The bandages are then removed from his 
eyes, and to the best of his ability he draws the im- 
pression which came to him while blindfolded. 
The results have varied in accuracy, very much as 
did the results in the experiments with objects 
and cards already described. 

The following diagrams are from drawings and 
reproductions made in the manner just described. 
They are from the proceedings of the Society for 
Psychical Research, and were the result of experi- 
ments made by Mr. Malcolm Guthrie and Mr. 
James Birchall, two prominent and cultivated 
citizens of Liverpool, together with three or four 



MR. GUTHRIE S EXPERIMENTS 



19 





II. Original 
Drawing. 





I. Original I. Reproduction. 

Drawing. 




II. Reproduction. 




III. Original 
Drawing. 



III. Reproduction, 




IV. Original 
Drawing. 



b 



IV. Repro- 
duction. 



20 TELEPATHY AND THE SUBLIMINAL SELF. 

ladies, personal friends of theirs, all of whom 
undertook the experiments with the definite 
purpose of testing the truth or falsity of thought- 
transference. 

I will also quote another experiment, which is 
only a fair example of a very large number, care- 
fully carried out from April to November, 1883. 
In many of the experiments members of the 
Committee on Thought-transference from the 
S. P. R. were present. 

April 20th, 1883.— Present, Mr. Guthrie, Mr. 
Birchall, Mr. Steel, and four ladies : — 



AGENT. 


PERaPIENT. 


Mrs. E. 


Miss R. 


do. 


do. 


Miss R. 


Miss E. 


do. 


do. 


do. 


do. 


All present. 


Miss R. 


do. 


do. 


do. 


do. 



A square of pink silk on 
black satin. 

A ring of white silk on 
black satin. 

Word RES, letter by 
letter. 



Letter Q. 

Letter F. 

A gilt cross held by Mr. 
G. behind the percip- 
ient. 

A yellow paper knife. 



A pair of scissors stand- 
ing open and upright 



" Pink . , . Square." An- 
swered almost instantly. 

" Can't see it." 



Each letter was named 
correctly by Miss E. as 
it was placed before Miss 
R. 

"Q." First answer. 

" F." First answer. 

"It is a cross." Asked, 
which way is it held,, per- 
cipient replied,"The right 
way." Correct. 

"Yellow ... is it a fea- 
ther? ... It looks like 
a knife with a thin 
handle." 

" It IS silver . . . No, it is 
steel ... It is a pair of 
scissors standing up- 
right." 



MR. GUTHRIE'S EXPERIMENTS. 



21 



Success was different on different occasions, but 
this represents an ordinary series of experiments 
at one sitting. In these experiments with objects, 
the percipient was bHndfolded and the object 
moreover was kept out of range of vision. In 
some experiments sHght contact was permitted, 
and in some it was not, but it was found that con- 
tact had little if any effect upon the result. 

Remarkable success was also obtained in the 
transference of sensation, such as taste, smell, or 
pain, while the percipient was in a normal con- 
dition, that is, not hypnotized. 

The following is an average example of the 
transference of taste : — 

The tasters, Mr. Guthrie (M. G.), Mr. Gurney 
(E. G.), and Mr. Myers (M.). The percipients were 
two young ladies in Mr. Guthrie's employ. 

Sept. 3, 1883. 



TASTERS. 


PERCIPIENT. 


SUBSTANCE. 


ANSWER GIVEN. 


E. G. & M. 


E. 


Worcestershire Sauce. 


"Worcestershire Sauce." 


M. G. 


R. 




"Vinegar." 


E. G. & M. 


E. 


Port wine. 


" Between eau de Cologne 
and beer." 


M. G. 


R. 


« 


" Raspberry Vinegar." 


E. G. & M. 


E. 


Bitter aloes. 


" Horrible and bitter." 


M. G. 


R. 


Alum. 


" A taste of ink— of iron — of 
vinegar. I feel it on my 
lips— it is as though I had 
been eating alum." 



22 TELEPATHY AND THE SUBLIMINAL SELF. 

Some very striking experiments were made by 
Mr. J. W. Smith of Brunswick Place, Leeds, as 
agent, and his sister Kate as percipient. Their 
success with diagrams fully equalled those already 
given, and with objects the results have seldom 
been equalled. The following trials were made 
March nth, 1884. The intelligence and good 
faith of the participants is undoubted. 

Agent : J. W. Smith. Percipient : Kate Smith. 

Object selected. Named. 

Figure 8 ' . . . Correct first time. 

Figure 5 " " 

Black cross on white ground. . . u « 

Color blue " " 

Cipher (o) " " 

Pair of Scissors. — Percipient was not told what (i. e. what 
form of experiment, figure, color or object) was to be next — but 
carefully and without noise a pair of scissors was placed on white 
ground, and in about one minute and a half she exclaimed : 
" Scissors ! " 

The number of facts and experiments bearing 
upon this division of our subject is well-nigh inex- 
haustible ; those already presented will serve as 
illustrations and will also show upon what sort of 
evidence is founded the probability that percep- 
tions and impressions are really conveyed from 
one mind to another in some other manner than 
by the ordinary and recognized methods of com- 
munication. 



IMPRESSION RECEIVED BY TWO PERSONS. 23 

It remains to give one or two illustrations of 
the fourth division of the subject, namely, where 
similar thoughts have simultaneously occurred, or 
similar impressions have been made upon the 
minds of persons at a distance from each other 
without any known method of communication 
between them. 

The first case was received and examined by 
the society in the summer of 1885. One of the 
percipients writes as follows : — 

" My sister-in-law, Sarah Eustance, of Stretton, 
was lying sick unto death, and my wife had gone 
over there from Lawton Chapel (twelve or thir- 
teen miles off) to see and tend her in her last 
moments. On the night before her death I was 
sleeping at home alone, and, awaking, I heard a 
voice distinctly call me. 

" Thinking it was my niece Rosanna, the only 
other occupant of the house, I went to her room 
and found her awake and nervous. I asked her 
whether she had called me. She answered : ' No ; 
but something awoke me, when I heard some one 
calling.' On my wife returning home after her 
sister's death she told me how anxious her sister 
had been to see me, craving for me to be sent for, 
and saying, * Oh, how I want to see Done once 
more ! " and soon after became speechless. But 



24 TELEPATHY AND THE SUBLIMINAL SELF. 

the curious part was that, about the same time 
that she was ' craving,' I and my niece heard the 
call." 

In answer to a letter of inquiry he further 
writes : — 

" My wife, who went from Lawton that partic- 
ular Sunday to see her sister, will testify, that as 
she attended upon her (after the departure of the 
minister) during the night, she was asking and 
craving for me, repeatedly saying, * Oh, I wish I 
could see Uncle Done and Rosie once more before 
I go ! ' and soon after she became unconscious, 
or at least ceased speaking, and died the next day, 
of which fact I was not aware until my wife 
returned on the evening of the Fourth of July." 

Mrs. Sewill, the Rosie referred to, writes as 
follows : — 

" I was awakened suddenly, without apparent 
cause, and heard a voice calling me distinctly, 
thus : * Rosie, Rosie, Rosie.' " We (my uncle 
and myself) were the only occupants of the house 
that night, aunt being away attending upon her 
sister. I never was called before or since." 

The second case is reported by a medical man 
of excellent reputation to whom the incident was 
related by both Lady G. and her sister, the percip- 
ients in the case. It is as follows :— 



LAD Y G. AND HER SISTER, 25 

** Lady G. and her sister had been spending the 
evening with their mother, who was in her usual 
health and spirits when they left her. In the 
middle of the night the sister awoke in a fright 
and said to her husband : ' I must go to my 
mother at once; do order the carriage. I am sure 
she is taken ill.' The husband, after trying in vain 
to convince his wife that it was only a fancy, 
ordered the carriage. As she was approaching her 
mother's house, where two roads meet, she saw 
Lady G.'s carriage approaching. As soon as they 
met, each asked the other why she was there at 
that unseasonable hour, and both made the same 
reply : — 

* I could not sleep, feeling sure my mother was 
ill, and so I came to see.' As they came in sight 
of the house they saw their mother's confidential 
maid at the door, who told them, when they 
arrived, that their mother had been taken suddenly 
ill and was dying, and that she had expressed an 
earnest wish to see her daughters." 

The reporter adds : — 

" The mother was a lady of strong will and 
always had a great influence over her daughters." 

Many well-authenticated instances of a similar 
character could be cited, but the above are suffi- 
cient for illustration, which is the object here 



26 TELEPA THY AND THE SUBLIMINAL SELF. 

chiefly in view, and other facts still further illus- 
trating this division of the subject will appear in 
other relations. 

The foregoing facts and experiments are suffi- 
cient to indicate v/hat is understood by thought- 
transference, or telepathy, and also to indicate 
what might be called the skirmishing ground be- 
tween the class of psychologists represented by 
the active workers in the Society for Psychical 
Research and kindred societies on the one hand, 
and the conservative scientists, mostty physiolo- 
gists, who are incredulous of any action of the 
the mind for which they cannot find an appro- 
priate organ and a proper method, on the other. 

It is not claimed that thought-transference as 
here set forth is established beyond all possibility 
of doubt or cavil, especially from those who choose 
to remain ignorant of the facts, but only that its 
facts are solid and their interpretation reasonable, 
and that thought-transference has now the same 
claim to acceptance by well-informed people that 
many of the now accepted facts in physical sci- 
ence had in its early days of growth and develop- 
ment. 

The reality of thought-transference being once 
established, a vast field for investigation is opened 
up ; a new^ law, as it were, is discovered ; and how 



A ISIEW FIELD OF STUDY. 27 

far-reaching and important its influence and 
bearing may be upon alleged facts and phenomena 
which heretofore have been disbelieved, or set 
down as chance occurrences, or explained away as 
hallucinations, is at present the interesting study 
of the experimental psychologist. 



I 



CHAPTER 11. 

MESMERISM AND HYPNOTISM — HISTORY AND 
THERAPEUTIC EFFECTS. 

No department of psychical research is at 
present exciting so widespread an interest as that 
which is known under the name of Hypnotism ; 
and inquiries are constantly made by those to 
whom the subject is new, regarding its nature and 
effects, and also how, if at all, it differs from the 
mesmerism and animal magnetism of many years 
ago. 

Unfortunately, these questions are more easily 
asked than answered, and well-informed persons, 
and even those considered experts in the subject, 
would doubtless give different and perhaps oppos- 
ing answers to them. A short historical sketch 
may help in forming an opinion. 

From the remotest periods of human history to 

the present time, certain peculiar and unusual 

conditions of mind, sometimes associated with 

abnormal conditions of body, have been observed, 

28 



MESMER'S EXPERIMENTS. 29 

during which unusual conditions, words have un- 
consciously been spoken, sometimes seemingly 
meaningless, but sometimes conveying knowledge 
of events at that moment taking place at a distance, 
sometimes foretelling future events, and some- 
times words of warning, instruction, or command. 

The Egyptians and Assyrians had their magi, 
the Greeks and Romans their oracles, the Hebrews 
their seers and prophets, every great rehgion its 
inspired teachers, and every savage nation had, 
under some name, its seer or medicine-man. 

Socrates had his daemon, Joan of Arc her voices 
and visions, the Highlanders their second sight, 
Spiritualists their mediums and " controls." Even 
Sitting Bull had his vision in which he foresaw the 
approach and destruction of Custer's army. 

Until a little more than a hundred years ago 
all persons affected in any of these unusual ways 
were supposed to be endowed with some sort of 
supernatural power, or to be under external and 
supernatural influence, either divine or satanic. 

About 1773 Mesmer, an educated German phy- 
sician, philosopher, and mystic, commenced the 
practice of curing disease by means of magnets 
passed over the affected parts and over the body 
of the patient from head to foot. Afterw^ard see- 
ing Gassner, a Swabian priest, curing his patients 



30 TELEPA THY AND THE SUBLIMINAL SELF. 

by command, and applying his hands to the af- 
fected parts, he discarded his magnets, concluding 
that the healing power or influence was not in 
them, but in himself ; and he called that influence 
animal magnetism. 

Mesmer also found that a certain proportion of 
his patients v/ent into a sleep more or less pro- 
found under his manipulations, during which 
somnambulism, or sleep-walking, appeared. But 
Mesmer's chief personal interest lay in certain 
theories regarding the nature of the newly-dis- 
covered power or agent, and in its therapeutic 
effects ; his theories, however, were not under- 
stood nor appreciated by the physicians of his 
time, and his cures were looked upon by them as 
being simply quackery. 

Nevertheless, it was he who first took the whole 
subject of these abnormal or supranormal condi- 
tions out of the domain of the supernatural, and 
in attempting to show their relation to natural 
forces he placed them in the domain of nature as 
proper subjects of rational study and investiga- 
tion ; and for this, at least, Mesmer should be 
honored. 

Under Mesmer's pupil, the Marquis de Puyse- 
gur, the facts and m.ethods relating to the mag- 
netic sleep and magnetic cures were more carefully 



THE EARLY MESMERIS TS. 3 1 

observed and more fully published. Then fol- 
lowed Petetih, Husson, and Dupotet, Elliotson 
in England and Esdaile in India. So from Mes- 
mer in 1773 to Dupotet and EUiotson in 1838 we 
have the period of the '' early mesmerists." 

During this period the hypnotic sleep was in- 
duced by means of passes, the operators never for 
a moment doubting that the influence which pro- 
duced sleep was a power of some sort proceeding 
from themselves and producing its effect upon the 
patient. 

In addition to the condition of sleep or lethargy, 
the following conditions were well known to the 
" early mesmerists " ; somnambulism, or sleep- 
walking, catalepsy, anaesthesia, and amnesia, or 
absence of all knowledge of what transpired dur- 
ing the sleep. Suggestion during sleep was also 
made use of, and was even then proposed as an 
agent in education and in the cure of vice. 

This was the condition of the subject in 1842, 
when Braid, an English surgeon, made some new 
and interesting experiments. He showed that 
the so-called mesmeric sleep could be produced 
in some patients by other processes than those 
used by the early mesmerists ; especially could 
this be accomplished by having the patient gaze 
steadily at a fixed brilliant object or point, with- 



32 TELEPATHY AMD THE SUBLIMINAL SELR 

out resorting to passes or manipulations of any- 
kind. 

He introduced the word hypnotism, which has 
since been generally adopted ; he also proposed 
some new theories relating to the nature of the 
hypnotic sleep, regarding it as a " profound nerv- 
ous change," and he still further developed the 
idea and use of suggestion. Otherwise no impor- 
tant changes were made by him in the status of 
the subject. It was not looked upon with favor 
by the profession generally, and its advocates 
were for the most part still considered as cranks 
and persons whose scientific and professional 
standing and character were not above suspicion. 

The period of twenty-five years from 1850 to 
1875, was a sort of occultation of hypnotism. 
Braidism suffered nearly the same fate as mes- 
merism — it was neglected and tabooed. A few 
capable and honest men, like Liebeault of Nancy 
and Azam of Bordeaux, worked on, and from time 
to time published their observations ; but for the 
most part these workers were neglected and even 
scorned. 

To acknowledge one's belief in animal magnet- 
ism or hypnotism was bad form, and he who did 
it must be content to suffer a certain degree of 
both social and professional ostracism. The field 



CHARCO T'S EXPERIMENTS. 'i^^ 

was given over to town-hall lectures on mesmer- 
ism, by " professors " whose titles were printed in 
quotation marks even by the local papers which 
recorded their exploits. 

But a change was about to be inaugurated. In 
1877 Prof. Charcot, then one of the most scientific, 
most widely-known, and most highly-esteemed of 
living physicians, not only in France but in all the 
world, was appointed, with two colleagues, to in- 
vestigate the treatment of hysteria by means of 
metallic disks — a subject which was then attract- 
ing the attention of the medical profession in 
France. 

So, curiously enough. It happened that Charcot 
commenced exactly where Mesmer had com- 
menced a hundred years before. He experi- 
mented upon hysterical patients in his wards at 
La Salpetriere, and, as a result, he rediscovered 
mesmerism under the name of hypnotism, just a 
century after it had been discovered by Mesmer 
and disowned by the French Academy. 

But Charcot, after having satisfied himself by 
his experiments, did not hesitate to announce his 
full belief in the facts and phenomena of hypnot- 
ism, and that was sufficient to rehabilitate the 
long-neglected subject. The attention of the 
scientific world was at once turned toward it, it 
3 



34 TELEPA THY AND THE SUBLIMINAL SELF. 

became a legitimate subject of study, and hyp- 
notism at once became respectable. From that 
time to the present it has formed one of the most 
conspicuous and interesting subjects of psychical 
study ; it has become to psychology what deter- 
mining the value of a single character is to read- 
ing an ancient inscription in a lost or unknown 
language — it is a bit of the unknown expressed 
in terms of the known and helps to furnish clues 
to still greater discoveries. 

With the scientific interest in hypnotism which 
was brought about through the great name and 
influence of Charcot, all doubt concerning the 
reality of the phenomena which it presents dis- 
appeared. Hypnotism was a fact and had come 
to stay. 

Charcot, who conducted his experiments chiefly 
among nervous or hysterical patients, looked 
upon the hypnotic condition as a disease, and con- 
sidered the phenomena presented by hypnotic 
subjects as akin to hysteria. In addition to the 
method of producing the hypnotic condition used 
by Braid, he used, among others, what he called 
'' massive stimulation," which consisted in first 
fully absorbing the subject's attention and then 
producing a shock by the loud sounding of a con- 
cealed gong, or the sudden display or sudden 



CHARCOT'S APPROVAL IMPORTANT. 35 

withdrawal of an electric light. By this means 
hysterical subjects were often thrown into a con- 
dition of catalepsy, from which somnambulism 
and other hypnotic phenomena were sometimes 
deduced. 

I have myself seen nervous patients thrown 
into the cataleptic state by the " massive stimu- 
lation " of a huge truck passing by, loaded with 
clanging rails or building iron, or by other sudden 
shock, but I did not consider the process thera- 
peutic nor in any way useful to the patient. In- 
deed, I have considered the present method of 
transporting those beams and rails of iron through 
our streets and past our dwellings, without the 
slightest attempt to modify their shocking din 
and clangor, a piece of savagery which should at 
once be made the subject of special legislation 
looking to the prompt punishment of the perpe- 
trators of the outrage. 

As a matter of fact, neither the methods em- 
ployed, the psychical conditions induced, nor the 
therapeutic effects attained at La Salpetri^re, 
where most of these experiments were at that 
time carried on, were such as to particularly com- 
mend themselves to students of psychology. 
Nevertheless the great name and approval of 
Charcot served to command for hypnotism the 



36 TELEPA THY AND THE SUBLIMINAL SELF. 

attention and the favorable consideration of the 
scientific world. 

Soon after the experiments of Charcot and his 
associates in Paris were published, Prof. Bern- 
heim commenced a most thorough and important 
study of the subject in the wards of the hospital 
at Nancy. These studies were made, not upon 
persons who were already subjects of nervous 
disease, as was the case with Charcot's patients, 
but, on the contrary, upon those whose nervous 
condition was perfectly normal, and even upon 
those whose general health was perfect. 

The result of Bernheim's experiments proved 
that a very large percentage of all persons, sick 
or well, could be put into the hypnotic condition. 
He claimed that suggestion was the great factor 
and influence, both in bringing about the condi- 
tion, and also in the mental phenomena observed, 
and the cures which were accomplished. 

He claimed, moreover, that the hypnotic sleep 
did not differ from ordinary sleep, and that no 
magnetism nor other personal element, influence, 
or force entered in any way Into the process — 
it was all the power and influence of suggestion. 

Four distinct and important periods then are 
found in the history of hypnotism : 

First, the period of the early mesmerists, ex- 



FO UR IMPOR TANT PERIODS. 3 7 

tending from the time of Mesmer, 1773, until 
that of Braid, 1842 — nearly seventy years — during 
which the theory of animal magnetism, or of 
some actual force or subtle influence proceeding 
from the operator to the subject, prevailed. 

Second, the period of thirty-five years during 
which the influence of Braid's experiments pre- 
dominated, showing that other methods, and 
especially that by the fixed gaze, were efificient 
in producing the hypnotic sleep. 

Third, the short period during which the in- 
fluence of Charcot and the Paris school pre- 
vailed. 

Fourth, the period since Bernheim began to 
publish his experiments, and which may be called 
the period of suggestion. 

With this brief sketch in mind, we are prepared 
to examine some of the more important phenom- 
ena of hypnotism, both in its early and its later 
developments. A simple case would be as fol- 
lows : — 

A patient comes to the physician's office com- 
plaining of continual headaches, general debility, 
nervousness, and unsatisfactory sleep. She is 
willing to be hypnotized, and is accompanied by 
a friend. The physician seats her comfortably in 
a chair, and, seating himself opposite her, he 



38 TELEPA THY AND THE SUBLIMINAL SELF. 

takes her thumbs lightly between his own thumbs 
and fingers, asks her to look steadily at some con- 
venient object — perhaps a shirt-stud or a specified 
button upon his coat. Presently her eyelids 
quiver and then droop slowly over her eyes ; he 
gently closes them with the tips of his fingers, 
holds them lightly for a moment, and she is 
asleep. 

He then makes several slow passes over her 
face and down the front of her body from head 
to foot, also some over her head and away from 
it, all without contact and without speaking to 
her. He lets her sleep ten or fifteen minutes — 
longer, if convenient — and then, making two or 
three upward passes over her face, he says 
promptly : " All right ; wake up." 

She slowly opens her eyes, probably smiles, and 
looks a little foolish at having slept. He inquires 
how she feels. She replies : 

" I feel remarkably well — so rested — as though 
I had slept a whole night." 

" How is your head ? " 

(Looking surprised.) " It is quite well — the pain 
is all gone." 

*' Very well," he says. " You will continue to 
feel better and stronger, and you will have good 
sleep at night." 



BERNHEIM'S METHOD. 39 

And SO it proves. Bernheim or a pupil of his 
would sit, or perhaps stand, near his patient, and 
in a quiet but firm voice talk of sleep. 

" Sleep is what you need. Sleep is helpful and 
will do you good. Already, while I am talking 
to you, you are beginning to feel drowsy. Your 
eyes are tired ; your lids are drooping ; you are 
growing more and more sleepy ; your lids droop 
more and more." 

Then, if the eyelids seem heavy, he presses 
them down over the eyes, all the time affirming 
sleep. If sleep comes, he has succeeded ; if not, 
he resorts to gestures, passes, the steady gaze, or 
whatever he thinks likely to aid his suggestion. 

When the patient is asleep he suggests that 
when she awakes her pains and nervousness will 
be gone, and that she will have quiet and refresh- 
ing sleep at night. What is the condition of the 
patient while under the influence of this induced 
sleep ? Pulse and respiration are little, if at all, 
changed ; they may be slightly accelerated at first, 
and later, if very deep sleep occurs, they may be 
slightly retarded. Temperature is seldom changed 
at all, though, if abnormally high before the sleep 
is induced, it frequently falls during the sleep. 

If the hand be raised, or the arm be drawn up 
high above the head, generally it will remain 



40 TELE PA THY AND THE SUBLIMINAL SELF. 

elevated until it is touched and replaced, or the 
patient is told that he can let it fall, when he 
slowly lowers it. 

In many cases the limbs of the patient may be 
flexed or the body placed in any position, and 
that position will be retained for a longer or 
shorter period, sometimes for hours, without 
change. Sometimes the condition is one of rigid- 
ity so firm that the head may be placed upon 
one chair and the heels upon another, and the 
body will remain stiff like a bridge from one 
chair to the other, even when a heavy weight is 
placed upon the middle of the patient's body or 
another person is seated upon it. This is the 
full cataleptic condition. 

Sometimes the whole body will be in a condition 
of anaesthesia, so that needles may be thrust deep 
into the flesh without evoking any sign of pain 
or any sensation whatever. Sometimes, when 
this condition of ansesthesia does not appear with 
the sleep, it may be induced by passes, or by sug- 
gesting that a certain limb or the whole body 
is without feeling. In this condition the most 
serious surgical operations have been performed 
without the slightest suffering on the part of the 
patient. 

From the deep sleep the patient often passes 



TWO CHIEF STAGES IN HYPNOTISM. 41 

of his own accord into a condition in which he 
walks, talks, reads, writes, and obeys the slightest 
wish or suggestion of the hypnotizer — and yet he 
is asleep. This is called the alert stage, or the 
condition of somnambulism, and is the most 
peculiar, interesting, and wonderful of all. 

The two chief stages of the hypnotic condition, 
then, are, first : the lethargic stage ; second, the 
alert stage. 

The stage of lethargy may be very light — a 
mere drowsiness — or very deep — a heavy slumber 
— and it is often accompanied by a cataleptic 
state, more or less marked in degree. 

The alert stage may also vary and may be 
characterized by somnambulism, varying in char- 
acter from a simple sleepy " yes " or '* no " in 
answer to questions asked by his hypnotizer, to 
the most wonderful, even supranormal, mental 
activity. 

From any of these states the subject may be 
awakened by his hypnotizer simply making a few 
upward passes or by saying in a firm voice, *' All 
right, wake up," or, again, by afrirming to the 
patient that he will aw^ake when he (the hypno- 
tizer) has counted up to a certain number, as, for 
instance, five. 

Generally, upon awakening, the subject has no 



42 TELEPA THY AND THE SUBLIMINAL SELF. 

knowledge or remembrance of anything which 
has transpired during his hypnotic condition. 
This is known as amnesia. Sometimes, however, 
a hazy recollection of what has happened remains, 
especially if the hypnotic condition has been only 
slight. 

Up to the present time hypnotism has been 
studied from two separate and important stand- 
points and for two wxll-defined purposes : (i) For 
its therapeutic effects, or its use in the treatment 
of disease and relief of pain ; (2) for the mental 
or psychical phenomena which it presents. 

The following cases will illustrate its study and 
use from the therapeutic standpoint — and, first, 
two cases treated by 'the old mesmerists, 1843- 
53. They are from reports publishec^^ in The 
Zoist :— 

(i) Q. I. P., a well-known artist, fifty years ago, 
had been greatly troubled and distressed by weak 
and inflamed eyes, accompanied by ulceration of 
the cornea, a condition which had lasted more 
than four years. He was never free from the dis- 
ease, and often it was so severe as to prevent 
work in his studio, and especially reading, for 
months at a time. He had been under the care 
of the best oculists, both in New York and Lon- 
don, for long periods and at different times, but 



CASES TREATED BY EARLY MESMERISTS. 43 

with very little temporary and no permanent re- 
lief. 

He was urged, as a last resort, to try animal 
magnetism, as it was then called. Accordingly, 
he consulted a mesmeric practitioner in London, 
and was treated by passes made over the back of 
the head and down the spine and from the centre 
of the forehead backward and outward over the 
temples and down the sides of the head. 

All other treatment was discontinued. No mes- 
meric phenomena of any kind were produced, not 
even sleep, but from the first day a degree of 
comfort and also improvement was experienced. 

The treatment was given one hour daily for 
one month. The improvement was decided and 
uninterrupted, such as had never before been ex- 
perienced under any form of medical or surgical 
treatment, no matter how thoroughly carried out. 
The general health was greatly improved, and the 
eyes were so much benefited that they could be 
relied upon constantly, both for painting and 
reading, and the cure was permanent. 

(2) A case of rheumatism treated by Dr. Elliot- 
son of London. The patient, G. F., age thirty- 
five years, was a laborer, and had suffered from 
rheumatism seven weeks. When he applied to 
Dr. Elliotson, the doctor was sitting in his office, 



44 TELEPA THY AND THE SUBLIMINAL SELF. 

in company with three friends — one a medical 
gentleman, and all skeptics regarding mesmerism. 

They all, however, expressed a desire to see 
the treatment, and, accordingly, the patient was 
brought in. He came with difficulty, upon 
crutches, his face betokening extreme pain. He 
had never been mesmerized. 

The doctor sat down opposite his patient, took 
his thumbs in his hands, and gazed steadily in his 
eyes. In twenty minutes he fell into the mes- 
meric sleep. Several of the mesmeric phenomena 
were then produced in the presence of his skepti- 
cal friends, after which he was allowed to sleep 
undisturbed for two hours. No suggestions re- 
garding his disease are reported as having been 
made to the patient during his sleep. 

He was awakened by reverse passes. Being 
fairly aroused, he arose from his chair, walked up 
and down the room without difficulty, and was 
perfectly unconscious of all that had transpired 
during his sleep ; he only knew he came into the 
room suffering, and on crutches, and that he was 
now free from pain and could walk with ease 
without them. He left one crutch v/Ith the doc- 
tor and went out twirling the other in his hand. 
He remained perfectly well. 

Dr. Elliotson afterward tried on three different 



CASE TREATED BY HYPNOTISM. 45 

occasions to hypnotize him but without success. 
Others also tried, but all attempts in this direction 
failed. 

I will here introduce one or two cases from my 
own notebook : — 

(i) A. C, a young girl of Irish parentage, 
fifteen years old, light skin, dark hair and eyes, 
and heavy eyebrows. Her father had '' fits " for 
several years previous to his death. I first saw 
the patient Dec. 4, 1872; this was five years be- 
fore Charcot's experiments, and nearly ten years 
before those of Bernheim. 

She was then having frequent epileptic attacks, 
characterized by sudden loss of consciousness, 
convulsions, foaming at the mouth, biting the 
tongue, and dark color. She had her first attack 
six months before I saw her, and they had in- 
creased in frequency and in severity until now 
they occurred twenty or more times a day, some- 
times lasting many minutes, and sometimes only 
a few seconds ; sometimes they were of very great 
severity. 

She had received many falls, burns, and bruises 
in consequence of their sudden accession. They 
occurred both day and night. On my second visit 
I determined to try hypnotism. Patient went to 
sleep in eight minutes, slept a short time and 



46 TELEPATHY AND THE SUBLIMINAL SELF. 

awoke without interference. She was imme- 
diately put to sleep again ; she slept only a few 
minutes, and again awoke. 

Dec. 7. — Her friends report that the attacks 
have not been so frequent and not nearly so vio- 
lent since my last visit. Hypnotized ; patient 
went into a profound sleep and remained one 
hour ; she was then awakened by reverse passes. 

Dec. 8. — The attacks have been still less fre- 
quent and severe ; she has slept quietly ; appetite 
good. Hypnotized and allowed her to sleep two 
hours, and then awoke her by the upward passes. 

Dec. 9. — There has been still more marked im- 
provement ; the attacks have been very few, none 
lasting more than half a minute. Hypnotized 
and allowed her to remain asleep three hours. 
Awoke her with some difficulty, and she was still 
somewhat drowsy when I left. She went to sleep 
in the afternoon and slept soundly four hours ; 
awoke and ate her supper ; went to sleep again 
and slept soundly all night. 

Dec. 10. — There has been no return of the at- 
tacks. A month later she had had no return of 
the attacks. She soon after left town, and I have 
not heard of her since. In this case no sugges- 
tions whatever were made. 

(2) B. X., twenty-four years of age, a sporting 



ALCHHOLISM— HYPNOTIC SUGGESTION. 47 

man ; obstinate, independent, self-willed, a leader 
in his circle. He had been a hard drinker from 
boyhood. He had been injured by a fall three 
years before, and had been subject to severe 
attacks of haematemesis. I had known him for 
three or four months previous to June, 1891. At 
that time he came into my office one evening 
somewhat under the influence of alcoholic stimu- 
lants. After talking a few moments, I advised 
him to lie down on the lounge. I made no re- 
marks about his drinking, nor about sleep. I 
simply took his two thumbs in my hands and sat 
quietly beside him. Presently I made a few long 
passes from head to feet, and in five minutes he 
was fast asleep. 

His hands and arms, outstretched and raised 
high up, remained exactly as they were placed. 
Severe pinching eHcited no sign of sensation. 
,He was in the deep hypnotic sleep. 

I then spoke to him in a distinct and decided 
manner. I told him he was ruining his life and 
making his family very unhappy by his habit of 
intemperance. I then told him very decidedly 
that when he awoke he would have no more de- 
sire for alcoholic stimulants of any kind ; that he 
would look upon them all as his enemies, and he 
would refuse them under all circumstances ; that 



48 TELEPA THY AND THE SUBLIMINAL SELF. 

even the smell of them would be disagreeable to 
him. I repeated the suggestions and then awoke 
him by making a few passes upward over his face, 
I did not inform him that I had hypnotized him, 
nor speak to him at all about his habit of drink- 
ing. I prescribed for some ailment for which he 
had visited me and he went away. 

I neither saw nor heard from him again for 
three months, when I received a letter from him 
from a distant city, informing me that he had not 
drank a drop of spirituous liquor since he was in 
my office that night. His health was perfect, 
and he had no more vomiting of blood. 

June, 1892, one year from the time I had 
hypnotized him, he came into my office in 
splendid condition. He had drank nothing dur- 
ing the whole year. I have not heard from him 
since. 

The following case illustrates Bernheim's 
method : — 

Mile. J., teacher, thirty-two years old, came to 
the clinique, Feb. 17, 1887, ^^^ chorea, or St. 
Vitus's dance. Nearly two weeks previous she 
had been roughly reprimanded by her superior 
which had greatly affected her. She could scarcely 
sleep or eat ; she had nausea, pricking sensations 
in both arms, delirium at times, and now inces- 



BERN HE IM 'S ME THOD ILL US TRA TED. 49 

sant movements, sometimes as frequent as two 
every second, in both the right arm and leg. 

She can neither write nor attend to her school 
duties. Bernheim hypnotizes her by his method. 
She goes easily into the somnambulic condition. 
In three or four minutes, under the influence of 
suggestion, the movements of the hand and foot 
cease ; upon waking up, they reappear, but less 
frequently. A second hypnotization, with sug- 
gestion, checks them completely. 

Feb. 19th. — Says she has been very comfortable ; 
the pricking sensations have ceased. No nervous 
movements until nine o'clock this morning, when 
they returned, about ten or eleven every minute. 
New hypnotization and suggestion, during which 
the motions cease, and they remain absent when 
she wakes. 

2 1 St. — Has had slight pains and a few choraic 
movements. 

25th. — Is doing well ; has no movements ; says 
she is cured. 

She returned a few times during the next four 
months with sHght nervous movements, which 
were promptly relieved by hypnotizing and sug- 
gestion. 

Bernheim, in his book, " Suggestive Therapeu- 
tics," gives details of over one hundred cases, 



50 TELEPATHY AND THE SUBLIMINAL SELF. 

mostly neuralgic and rheumatic, most of which 
are described as cured, either quickly or by re- 
peated hypnotization and suggestion. 

The Zoist, a journal devoted to psychology and 
mesmerism nearly fifty years ago, gives several 
hundred cases of treatment and cure by the early 
mesmerists, some of them very remarkable, and 
also many cases of surgical operations of the most 
severe or dangerous character painlessly done 
under the anaesthetic influence of mesmerism be- 
fore the benign effects of ether or chloroform were 
known. These cases are not often referred to by 
the modern student of hypnotism. Nevertheless, 
they constitute a storehouse of well-observed 
facts which have an immense interest and value. 

It will thus be seen that throughout the whole 
history of hypnotism, under whatever name it 
has been studied, one of its chief features has 
been its power to relieve suffering and cure 
disease ; and at the present day, while many phy- 
sicians who are quite ignorant of its uses, in gen- 
eral terms deny its practicability, few who have 
any real knowledge of it are so unjust or regard- 
less of facts as to deny its therapeutic effects. 



CHAPTER III. 

HYPNOTISM — PSYCHICAL ASPECT. 

As before remarked the phenomena of hypnot- 
ism may be viewed from two distinct standpoints 
— one, that from which the physical and espe- 
cially the therapeutic features are most prominent, 
the standpoint from which we have already viewed 
the subject ; the other is the psychical or mental 
aspect, which presents phenomena no less strik- 
ing, and is the one which is especially attractive 
to the most earnest students of psychology. 

The hypnotic condition has been variously 
divided and subdivided by different students and 
different writers upon the subject ; Chari'cot^ for 
instance, makes three distinct states, which he 
designates (i) catalepsy, (2) lethargy, and (3) som- 
nambulism, while Bernheim proposes five states, 
or, as he designates them, degrees of hypnotism, 
namely, (i) sleepiness^ (2) light sleep, (3) deep 
Bleep, (4) very deep sleep, (5) somnambulism. 

All these divisions are arbitrary and unnatural; 

51 



52 TELEPATHY AND THE SUBLIMINAL SELF. 

Bernheim's five degrees have no definite limit or 
line of separation one from the other, and Char- 
cot's condition of catalepsy is only lethargy or 
sleep in which the subject may, to a greater or 
less degree, maintain the position in which he is 
placed by his hypnotizer. 

There are, however, as already stated, two dis- 
tinct and definite conditions, namely, (i) lethargy, 
or the inactive stage, and (2) somnambulism, or 
the alert stage, and if, in examining the subject, 
we make this simple division, we shall free it from 
much confusion and unnecessary verbiage. 

When a subject is hypnotized by any soothing 
process, he first experiences a sensation of drowsi- 
ness, and then in a space of time, usually varying 
from two to twenty minutes, he falls into a more 
or less profound slumber. His breathing is full 
and quiet, his pulse normal ; he is unconscious of 
his surroundings ; or possibly he may be quiet, 
restful, indisposed to move, but having a con- 
sciousness, probably dim and imperfect, of what is 
going on about him. 

This is the condition of lethargy, and in it most 
subjects, but not all, retain to a greater or less 
degree whatever position the hypnotizer imposes 
upon them ; they sleep on, often maintaining 
what, under ordinary circumstances, would be a 



THE ALERT STAGE OF HYPNOTISM. 53 

most uncomfortable position, for hours, motion- 
less as a statue of bronze or stone. 

If, now, he speaks of his own accord, or his 
magnetizer speaks to him and he replies, he is in 
the somnambulic or alert stage. He may open ^ 
his eyes, talk in a clear and animiated manner ; he 
may walk about, and show even more intellectual 
acuteness and physical activity than when in his 
normal state, or he may merely nod assent or 
answer slowly to his hypnotizer's questions ; 
still, he is in the somnambulic or alert stage of 
hypnotism. 

The following are some of the phenomena 
which have been observed in this stage. It is not 
necessary to rehearse the stock performances of 
lecture-room hypnotists. While under the influ- 
ence of hypnotic suggestion a lad, for instance, is 
made to go through the pantomime of fishing in 
an imaginary brook, a dignified man to canter 
around the stage on all fours, under the impres- 
sion that he is a pony, or watch an imaginary 
mouse-hole in the most alert and interested man- 
ner while believing himself a cat ; or the subject 
is made to take castor oil with every expression 
of delight, or reject the choicest wines with dis- 
gust, believing them to be nauseous drugs, or 
stagger with drunkenness under the influence 



54 TELEPATHY AND THE SUBLIMINAL SELF. 

of a glass of pure water, supposed to be 
whisky. 

All these things have been done over and over 
for the last forty years, and people have not 
known whether to consider them a species of 
necromancy or well-practiced tricks, in which the 
performers were accomplices, or, perhaps, a few 
more thoughtful and better-instructed people 
have looked upon them as involving psychological 
problems of the greatest interest, which might 
some day strongly influence all our systems of 
mental philosophy. 

But whether done by the mesmerist of forty 
years ago or the hypnotist of the past decade, 
they were identical in character, and were simply 
genuine examples of the great power of sugges- 
tion when applied to persons under the mesmeric 
or hypnotic influence. Such exhibitions, however, 
are unnecessary and undignified, if not positively 
degrading, to both subject and operator, whether 
given by the self-styled professor of the town-hall 
platform or the aspiring clinical professor of nerv- 
ous diseases before his packed amphitheatre of 
admiring students. 

One of the most singular as well as important 
points in connection with hypnotism is the rap- 
port or relationship which exists between the hyp- 



RAPPORT. 55 

notizer and the hypnotized subject. The manner 
in which the hypnotic sleep is induced is of little 
importance. The important thing, if results of 
any kind are to be obtained, is that rapport should 
be established. 

This relationship is exhibited in various ways. 
Generally, while in the hypnotic state, the subject 
hears no voice but that of his hypnotizer ; he does 
no bidding but his, he receives no suggestions but 
from him, and no one else can awaken him from 
his sleep. 

If another person interferes, trying to impose 
his influence upon the sleeping subject, or attempts 
to waken him, distressing and even alarming re- 
sults may appear. The degree to which this rap- 
port exists varies greatly in different cases, but 
almost always, perhaps we should say always, the 
condition exists in some degree. In some rare 
cases this rapport is of a still higher and more 
startling character, exhibiting phenomena so con- 
trary to, or rather, so far exceeding, our usual ex- 
perience as to be a surprise to all and a puzzle to 
the wisest. 

One of these curious phenomena is well ex- 
hibited in what is known as community of sensa- 
tion, or the perception by the subject of sensa- 
tions experienced by the operator. The follow- 



56 TELEPATHY AND THE SUBLIMINAL SELF. 

Ing experiment, observed by Mr. Gurney and Dr. 
Myers of the Society for Psychical Research, will 
illustrate this phase of the subject. 

The sensitive in this experiment is designated 
as Mr. C, and the operator. as Mr. S. There was 
no contact or any communication whatsoever of 
the ordinary kind betvv^een them. C. was hypno- 
tized, but was not informed of the nature of the 
experiment which was to be tried. The operator 
stood behind the hypnotized subject, and Mr. 
Gurney, standing behind the operator, handed 
him the different substances to be used in the ex- 
periment, and he, in turn, placed them in his own 
mouth. 

Salt was first so tasted by the operator, where- 
upon the subject, C, instantly and loudly cried 
out : " What's that salt stuff ? " Sugar was given. 
C. replied, " Sweeter ; not so bad as before." 
Powdered ginger ; reply, " Hot, dries up your 
mouth ; reminds me of mustard." Sugar given 
again ; reply, " A little better — a sweetish taste." 
Other substances were tried, with similar results, 
the last one tasted being vinegar, when it was 
found that C. had fallen into the deeper lethargic 
condition and made no reply. 

Another experiment is reported by Dr. William 
A. Hammond of Washington. The doctor said : 



RA PPOR T AT A DISTANCE. 5 y 

" A most remarkable fact is, that some few sub- 
jects of hypnotism experience sensations from im- 
pressions made upon the hypnotizer. Thus, there 
is a subject upon whom I sometimes operate whom 
I can shut up in a room with an observer, while I 
go into another closed room at a distance of one 
hundred feet or more with another observer. This 
one, for instance, scratches my hand with a pin, 
and instantly the hypnotized subject rubs his cor- 
responding hand, and says, * Don't scratch my 
hand so ; ' or my hair is pulled, and immediately 
he puts his hand to his head and says, * Don't 
pull my hair ; ' and so on, feeling every sensation 
that I experience." 

This experiment, it must be borne in mind, is 
conducted in closed rooms a hundred feet apart, 
and through at least two partitions or closed 
doors, and over that distance and through these 
intervening obstacles peculiar and definite sensa- 
tions experienced by one person are perceived and 
definitely described by another person, no or- 
dinary means of communication existing between 
them. This is an example of the rapport existing 
between the operator and hypnotized subject car- 
ried to an unusual degree. 

The following experiments are examples of hyp- 
notizing at a distance, or telepathic hypnotism, 



58 TELEPATHY AND THE SUBLIMINAL SELF. 

and while illustrating still further the rapport, or 
curious relationship, existing between hypnotizer 
and subject, are also illustrations of the rarer 
psychic phenomena of hypnotism. 

The first series of experiments is given by Prof. 
Pierre Janet of Havre and Dr. Gibert, a prominent 
physician of the same city. The subject was 
Mme. B., a heavy, rather stolid, middle-aged peas- 
ant woman, without any ambition for notoriety, 
or to be known as a sensitive ; on the contrary, 
she disliked it, and the experiments were disagree- 
able to her. She was, however an excellent ex- 
ample of close rapport with her hypnotizer. 

While in the deep sleep, and perfectly insen- 
sible to ordinary stimuli, however violent, contact, 
or even the proximity of her hypnotizer's hand, 
caused contractures, which a light touch from him 
would also remove. No one else could produce 
the slightest effect. After about ten minutes in 
this deep trance she usually passed into the alert, 
or somnambulic stage, from which also no one but 
the operator could arouse her. Hypnotization 
was difficult or impossible unless the operator con- 
centrated his thoughts upon the desired result, 
but by simply willing, without passes or any phys- 
ical means whatsoever, the hypnotic condition 
could be quickly induced. 



HYPNOTIZATION AT A DISTANCE. 59 

Various experiments in simply willing post-hyp- 
notic acts, without suggestion through any of the 
ordinary channels of communication, were also 
perfectly successful. Dr. Gibert then made three 
experiments in putting this subject to sleep when 
she was in another part of the town, a third of a 
mile away from the operator, and at a time fixed 
by a third person, the experiment also being 
wholly unexpected by the subject. 

On two of these occasions Prof. Janet found the 
subject in a deep trance ten minutes after the 
willing to sleep, and no one but Dr. Gibert, who 
had put her to sleep, could rouse her. In the 
third experiment the subject experienced the 
hypnotic influence and desire to sleep, but resisted 
it and kept herself awake by washing her hands in 
cold water. 

During a second series of experiments made 
with the same subject, several members of the So- 
ciety for Psychical Research were present and took 
an active part in them. Apart from trials made 
in the same or an adjoining room, twenty-one 
experiments were made when the subject was at 
distances varying from one-half to three-fourths 
of a mile away from her hypnotizer. Of these, 
six were reckoned as failures, or only partial suc- 
cesses ; there remained, then, fifteen perfect sue- 



6o TELEPATHY AND THE SUBLIMINAL SELF. 

cesses in which the subject, Mme. B., was found 
entranced fifteen minutes after the willing or 
mental suggestion. During one of these experi- 
ments, the subject was willed by Dr. Gibert to 
come through several intervening streets to him 
at his own house, which she accompHshed in the 
somnambulic condition, and under the observa- 
tion of Prof. Janet and several other physicians. 

Another series of experiments was made with 
another subject by Dr. Hericourt, one of Prof. 
Richet's coadjutors. The experiments included 
the gradual extension of the distance through 
which the willing power was successful, first to 
another room, then to another street, and a distant 
part of the city. 

One day, while attempting to hypnotize her in 
another street, three hundred yards distant, at 3 
o'clock P. M., he was suddenly called away to attend 
a patient, and forgot all about his hypnotic subject. 
Afterward he remembered that he was to meet 
her at 4 : 30, and went to keep his appointment. 
But not finding her, he thought possibly the ex- 
periment, which had been interrupted might, 
after all, have proved successful. Upon this sup- 
position, at 5 o'clock he willed her to awake. 

That evening, without being questioned at all, 
she gave the following account of herself: At 



POST-HYPNOTIC SUGGESTIONS. 6i 

3 P. M. she was overcome by an irresistible desire 
to sleep, a most unusual thing for her at that hour. 
She went into an adjoining room, fell insensible 
upon a sofa, where she was afterward found by 
her servant, cold and motionless, as if dead. 

Attempts on the part of the servant to rouse 
her proved ineffectual, but gave her great distress. 
She woke spontaneously and free from pain at 5 
o'clock. 

By no means the least interesting of the higher 
phenomena of hypnotism are post-hypnotic sug- 
gestions, or the fulfilment after waking of sug- 
gestions impressed upon the subject when asleep. 

A few summers ago at a little gathering of in- 
telligent people, much interest was manifested 
and a general desire to see some hypnotic experi- 
ments. Accordingly, one of the ladies whose good 
sense and good faith could not be doubted, was 
hypnotized and put into the condition of pro- 
found lethargy. After a few slight experiments, 
exhibiting anaesthesia, hallucinations of taste, 
plastic pose, and the like, I said to her in a de- 
cided manner : 

" Now I am about to waken you. I will count 
five, and when I say the word 'five' you will 
promptly, but quietly and without any excite- 
ment, awake. Your mind will be perfectly clear. 



62 TELE PA THY AND THE SUBLIMINAL SELF. 

and you will feel rested and refreshed by your 
sleep. Presently you will approach Mrs. O., and 
will be attracted by the beautiful shell comb 
which she wears in her hair, and you will ask her 
to permit you to examine it." 

I then commenced counting slowly, and at the 
word " five " she awoke, opened her eyes 
promptly, looked bright and happy, and expressed 
herself as feeling comfortable and greatly rested, 
as though she had slept through a whole night. 
She rose from her chair, mingled with the com- 
pany, and presently approaching Mrs. O., ex- 
claimed : 

** What a beautiful comb ! Please allow me to 
examine It.*' 

And suiting the action to the word, she placed 
her hand lightly on the lady's head, examined the 
comb, and expressed great admiration for it ; in 
short, she fulfilled with great exactness the whole 
suggestion. 

She was perfectly unconscious that any sugges- 
tion had been made to her ; she was greatly sur- 
prised to see that she was the centre of observa- 
tion, and especially at the ripple of laughter 
which greeted her admiration of the comb. 

To another young lady, hypnotized in like man- 
ner, I suggested that on awaking she should 



V 



FULFILLED AFTER SIXTY-THREE DAYS. 63 

approach the young daughter of our hostess, who 
was present, holding a favorite kitten in her arms, 
and should say to her, '' What a pretty kitten 
you have ! What is her name ? " 

The suggestion was fulfilled to the letter. It 
was only afterward that I learned that this young 
lady had a very decided aversion to cats, and 
always avoided them if possible. 

Suggestions for post-hypnotic fulfilment are 
sometimes carried out after a considerable time 
has elapsed, and upon the precise day suggested. 

Bernheim, in August, 1883, suggested to S., an 
old soldier, while in the hypnotic sleep, that upon 
the 3d of October following, sixty-three days after 
the suggestion, he should go to Dr. Liebeault's 
house ; that he would there see the President of 
the Republic, who would give to him a medal. 

Promptly on the day designated he went. Dr. 
Liebeault states that S. came at 12 : 50 o'clock ; 
he greeted M. F., who met him at the door as he 
came in, and then went to the left side of the 
office without paying any attention to any one. 
Dr. Liebeault continues : — 

" I saw him bow respectfully and heard him 
speak the word ^ Excellence.' Just then he held 
out his right hand, and said, * Thank your Excel- 
lence.' Then I asked him to whom, he was 



64 TELEPATHY AND THE SUBLIMINAL SELF. 

speaking. 'Why, to the President of the Repub- 
lic' He then bowed, and a few minutes later 
took his departure." 

A patient of my own, a young man with whom I 
occasionally experiment, exhibits some of the dif- 
ferent phases and phenomena of hypnotism in a 
remarkable manner. He goes quickly into the 
stage of profound lethargy; after allowing him 
to sleep a few moments, I say to him : " Now you 
can open your eyes and you can see and talk with 
me, but you are still asleep, and you will remem- 
ber nothing." 

He opens his eyes at once, smiles, gets up and 
walks, and chats in a lively manner. If I say : 
" Now you are in the deep sleep again," and pass 
my hand downward before his eyes, immediately 
his eyes close and he is in a profound slumber. 
If five seconds later I again say, " Now you can 
open your eyes," he is again immediately in the 
alert stage. 

For experiment I then take half a dozen plain 
blank cards, exactly alike, and in one corner of 
one of the cards I put a minute dot, so that upon 
close inspection it can be recognized. Holding 
these in my hand, I say to him : 

" Here are six cards ; five of them are blank, 
but this one (the one I have marked, he only see- 



A SUGGESTED PHOTOGRAPH. 65 

ing the plain side) has a picture of myself upon 
it. It is a particularly good picture, and I have 
had it prepared specially for this occasion. Do 
you see the picture ? " 

''Of course I do," he replies. ''What do you 
think of it ? " I ask him. He looks at me care- 
fully and compares my face with the suggested 
picture on the card and replies, " It is excellent." 

" Very well, give me the cards." 

He hands them to me and I shuffle and dis- 
arrange them as much as possible. I then show 
them to him, holding them in my hand, and say: 

" Now show me the card which has my picture 
upon it." 

He selects it at once. I only know it is cor- 
rect by looking for the dot upon the back, which 
has all the while been kept carefully concealed 
from him. 

I then say to him : " Now, I am going to 
awaken you-, and when awake you will come to 
the desk, select from the cards which I now place 
there the one which has my picture, and show 
it to me." 

He awakes at my counting when I reach the 
word five, as I have suggested to him. He re- 
members nothing of what has passed since he 
was hypnotized, but thinks he has had a long and 
5 



66 TELEPA THY AND THE SUBLIMINAL SELF. 

delightful sleep. I sit at my desk ; he walks up 
to it, examines the six cards which are lying 
there, selects one, and showing it to me, remarks, 
"There is your picture." It was the same 
marked card. 

On another occasion, while he was asleep and 
in the alert stage, Mrs. M. was present. I intro- 
duced her, and he spoke to her with perfect pro- 
priety. Afterward I said : " Now, I will awake 
you, but you will only see me. Mrs. M. you will 
not see at all." 

I then awoke him, as usual. He commenced 
talking to me in a perfectly natural and unre- 
strained manner. Mrs. M. stood by my side be- 
tween him and myself, but he paid not the 
slightest attention to her ; she then withdrew, and 
I remarked indifferently : 

" Wasn't it a little peculiar of you not to speak 
to Mrs. M. before she went out ? " 

*' Speak to Mrs. M ! " he exclaimed, with evident 
surprise. " I did not know she had been in the 
room." 

One day when Drs. Liebeault and Bernheim 
were together at their clinic at the hospital, Dr. 
Liebeault suggested to a hypnotized patient that 
when she awoke she would no longer see Dr. 
Bernheim, but that she would recognize his hat, 



NEGATIVE SUGGESTION. 67 

would put it on her head, and offer to take it to 
him. 

When she awoke, Dr. Bernheim was standing 
in front of her. She was asked : " Where is Dr. 
Bernheim ? " She replied : '* He is gone, but 
here is his hat." 

Dr. Bernheim then said to her, " Here I am, 
madam ; I am not gone, you recognize me, per- 
fectly." 

She was silent, taking not the slightest notice 
of him. Some one else addressed her ; she re- 
plied with perfect propriety. Finally, when 
about to go out she took up Dr. Bernheim's 
hat, put it on her head, saying she would take 
it to him ; but to her Dr. Bernheim was not 
present. 

To the number of curious phenomena, both 
physical and mental, connected with hypnotism, 
it is difficult to find a limit ; a few others seem 
too important in their bearing upon the subject 
to be omitted, even in this hasty survey. 

Some curious experiments in the production of 
local anaesthesia were observed by the committee 
on mesmerism from the Society for Psychical 
Research. 

The subject was in his normal condition and 
blindfolded ; his arms were then passed through 



68 TELE PA THY AND THE SUBLIMINAL SELF. 

holes in a thick paper screen, extending in front 
of him and far above his head, and his ten fin- 
gers were spread out upon a table. Two of the 
fingers were then silently pointed out by a third 
person to Mr. S., the operator, who proceeded to 
make passes over the designated fingers. 

Care was taken that such a distance was main- 
tained between the fingers of the subject and 
operator that no contact was possible, and no 
currents of air or sensation of heat were pro- 
duced by which the subject might possibly divine 
which of his fingers were the subject- of experi- 
ment. In short, the strictest test conditions in 
every particular, were observed. After the 
passes had been continued for a minute, or even 
less time, the operator simply holding his own 
fingers pointed downward toward the designated 
fingers of the subject, the two fingers so treated 
were found to be perfectly stiff and insensible. 
A strong current of electricity, wounding with 
a pointed instrument, burning with a match — all 
failed to elicit the slightest sign of pain or dis- 
comfort, while theshghtest injury to the unmag- 
netized fingers quickly elicited cries and protests. 
When told to double up his fist the two magnet- 
ized fingers remained rigid and immovable, and 
utterly refused to be folded up with the others. 



INANIMA TE OB/EC TS MA GNE TIZED. 69 

A series of one hundred and sixty experiments 
of this character was made with five different sub- 
jects. Of these, only seven were failures. In 
another series of forty-one experiments this curious 
fact was observed. In all these experiments the 
operator, while making the passes in the same 
manner and under the same conditions as in the 
former series, silently willed that the effect should 
not follow ; that is, that insensibility and rigidity 
should not occur. In thirty-six of these experi- 
ments insensibility did not occur ; in five cases 
the insensfbility and rigidity occurred — in two 
cases perfectly, in three imperfectly. 

That some quality is imparted even to inanimate 
objects by some mesmerizers, by passes or handling, 
through which a sensitive or subject is able to 
recognize and select that object from among many 
others, seems to be a well-established fact. The 
following experiments are in point : — 

A gentleman well known to the committee 
of investigation, and who was equally inter- 
ested with it in securing reliable results, was se- 
lected as a subject. He was accustomed to be 
hypnotized by the operator, but in the present 
case he remained perfectly in his normal con- 
dition. 

One member of the committee took the subject 



70 TELEPA THY AND THE SUBLIMINAL SELF. 

into a separate room on another floor and engaged 
him closely in conversation. The operator re- 
mained with other members of the committee. 
Ten small miscellaneous articles, such as a piece 
of sealing wax, a penknife, paperweight, card-case, 
pocketbook, and similar articles were scattered 
upon a table. One was designated by the com- 
mittee, over which the mesmerist made passes, 
sometimes with light contact. 

This was continued for one or two minutes, and 
when the process was completed the mesmerist 
was conducted out and to a third room. The 
articles were then rearranged in a manner quite 
different from that in which they had been left by 
the operator, and the subject from the floor above 
was brought into the room. The several objects 
were then examined by the sensitive, who upon 
taking the mesmerized object in his hand, 
immediately recognized it as the one treated by 
his mesmerizer. 

The experiment Vv^as then varied by using ten 
small volumes exactly alike. One volume was 
selected by the committee, over which the oper- 
ator simply made passes with out any contact 
whatsoever. Three or four other volumes of the 
set were also handled and passes made over them 
by a member of the committee. 



MA GNE TIZED WA TER DE TEC TED. 7 1 

The operator then being excluded, the sensitive 
was brought in and immediately selected the 
magnetized volume. This he did four times in 
succession. In reply to the question as to how 
he was able to distinguish the magnetized object 
from others, he said that when he took the right 
object in his hand he experienced a mild tingling 
sensation. 

My own experiments with magnetized water 
have presented similar results. The water was 
treated by simply holding the fingers of both 
hands brought together in a clump, for about a 
minute just over the cup of water, but without any 
contact whatsoever. This water was then given 
to the subject without her knowing that she was 
taking part in an experiment ; but alternating 
it or giving it irregularly v/ith water which had 
not been so treated, and given by a third person, 
in every case the magnetized water was at once 
detected with great certainty. In describing 
the sensation produced by the magnetized water 
one patient said the sensation was an agreeable 
warmth and stimulation upon the tongue, 
another that it was a " sparkle " like aerated 
water ; it sparkled in her mouth and all the way 
down into her stomach. Such are a few among 
the multitude of facts and phenomena relating 



72 TELEPATHY AND THE SUBLIMINAL SELF. 

to hypnotism. They suffice to settle and make 
sure some matters which until lately have been 
looked upon as questionable, and, on the other 
hand, they bring into prominence others of 
the greatest interest which demand further 
study. 

Among the subjects which may be considered 
established may be placed, 

(i) The reality of the hypnotic condition. 

(2) The increased and unusual power of sugges- 
tion over the hypnotized subject. 

(3) The usefulness of hypnotism as a thera- 
peutic agent. 

(4) The perfect reality and natural, as contrasted 
with supernatural, character of many wonderful 
phenomena, both physical and psychical, exhibited 
in the hypnotic state. 

On the other hand, much remains for future 
study ; 

(i) The exact nature of the influence which 
produces the hypnotic condition is not known. 

(2) Neither is the nature of the rapport or 
peculiar relationship which exists between the 
hypnotizer and the hypnotized subject — a relation- 
ship which is sometimes so close that the subject 
hears no voice but that of his hypnotizer, perceives 
and experiences the same sensations of taste, 



ESTABLISHED FACTS HERE PRESENTED. 73 

touch, and feeling generally as are experienced by 
him, and can be awakened only by him. 

(3) Nor is it known by what peculiar process 
suggestion is rendered so potent, turning, for the 
time being, at least, water into wine, vulgar weeds 
into choicest flowers, a lady's drawing-room into 
a fishpond, and clear skies and quiet w^aters into 
lightning-rent storm-clouds and tempest-tossed 
waves ; turning laughter into sadness, and tears 
into mirth. 

In dealing with the subject of hypnotism in this 
hasty and general way, only such facts and phe- 
nomena have been presented as are well known 
and accepted by well-informed students of the 
subjects. Others still more wonderful will later 
claim our attention. 



CHAPTER IV. 

LUCIDITY OR CLAIRVOYANCE. 

While there is doubtess a recognized standard 
of normal perception, yet the acuteness with which 
sensations are perceived by different individuals, 
even in ordinary health, passes through a wide 
scale of variation, both above and below this 
standard. The difference in the ability to see and 
recognize natural objects, signs, and indications, 
between the ordinary city denizen and, for 
instance, the American Indian or the white 
frontiersman, hunter, or scout, is something mar- 
vellous. 

So, also, regarding the power to distinguish 
colors. One person may not be able to distin- 
guish even the simple or primary colors, as, for 
example, red from blue or green, while the weav- 
ers of Central or Eastern Asia distinguish with 
certainty two hundred or three hundred shades 
which are entirely undistinguishable to ordinary 

Western eyes. 
74 



EXTREMES OF PITCH NOT HEARD. 75 

So of sound. One ear can hardly be said to make 
any distinction whatever regarding pitch, while 
to another the slightest variation is perfectly per- 
ceptible. Some even do not hear at all sounds 
above or below a certain pitch ; some persons of 
ordinary hearing within a certain range of pitch, 
nevertheless, have never heard the song of the 
canary bird, and perhaps have lived through a 
large portion of their lives without even knowing 
that it was a song-bird at all. Its song was above 
the range of their hearing. Some never hear the 
sound of the piccolo, or octave flute, while others 
miss entirely the lowest notes of the organ. 

There is the same great difference in perception 
by touch, taste, and smell. In certain conditions 
of disease, accompanied by great depression of 
the vital forces, this deviation from normal per- 
ception is greatly increased. I have had a patient 
who presented the following briefly-outlined phe- 
nomena : — 

After a long illness, during which other inter- 
esting psychical phenomena were manifested, as 
convalescence progressed, I had occasion to notice 
instances of supernormal perception, and to test 
it I made use of the following expedient : Taking 
an old-fashioned copper cent, I carefully envel- 
oped it in a piece of ordinary tissue paper. This 



76 TELEPA THY AND THE SUBLIMINAL SELF. 

was then covered by another and then another, 
until the coin had acquired six complete enve- 
lopes of the paper, and formed a little flat parcel, 
easily held in the palm of my hand. 

Taking this with me, I visited my patient. She 
was lying upon a sofa, and as I entered the room 
I took a chair and sat leisurely down beside her, 
having the little package close in the palm of my 
right hand. I took her right hand in mine in 
such a manner that the little package was between 
our hands in close contact with her palm as well 
as my own. I remarked upon the weather and 
commenced the routine duty of feeling her pulse 
with my left hand. A minute or two was then 
passed in banter and conversation, designed to 
thoroughly engage her attention, when all at once 
she commenced to wipe her mouth with her 
handkerchief and to spit and sputter with her 
tongue and lips, as if to rid herself of some offen- 
sive taste or substance. She then looked up sus- 
piciously at me and said : 

" I wonder what you are doing with me now." 

Then suddenly pulling her hand away from 
mine she exclaimed : 

" I know what it is ; you have put a nasty piece 
of copper in my hand." 

Through all these coverings the coppery emana- 



EXAL TA TION OF PER CEP TIVE PO WERS. 7 7 

tion from the coin had penetrated her system, 
reached her tongue, and was perceptible to her 
supernormal taste. 

This patient could distinguish with absolute 
certainty " mesmerized " water from that which 
had not been so treated ; my finger, also, pointed 
at her even at a distance and when her back was 
turned to me caused convulsive action, and the 
same result followed when the experiment was 
made through a closed door, and when she did 
not suspect that I was in the neighborhood. 

It will be seen, then, how marvellously the action 
of certain senses may be exalted by long and care- 
ful training on the one hand, and suddenly by 
disease on the other. We have seen, moreover, 
how some persons known as sensitives are able 
to receive impressions by thought-transference so 
as to name cards, repeat words and fictitious 
names, both of persons and places, merely thought 
of but not spoken by another person known as 
as the agent or operator, and to draw diagrams 
unmistakably like those formed in the mind or 
intently looked upon by the agent. 

We have also seen how the hypnotized or mes- 
merized subject is able to detect objects which 
have only been touched or handled by the mes- 
merizer, and even to feel pain inflicted upon him, 



78 TELEPATHY AND THE SUBLIMINAL SELF. 

and recognize by taste substances put in the mes- 
merizer's mouth. 

It will be seen, then, that not only increased 
but entirely supernormal perception on the part of 
some individuals is a well-established fact. But 
all these conditions of increased power of percep- 
tion, and especially thought-transference, must 
be carefully distinguished from independent clair- 
voyance. It is not the purpose of this paper to 
discuss the method or philosophy of clairvoyance, 
but simply to call attention to well-authenticated 
facts illustrating the exercise of this power, and 
to briefly point to the current theories regard- 
ing it. 

A belief in supernormal perception, and es- 
pecially in the clairvoyant vision, is apparent in 
the history, however meagre it may be, of every 
ancient nation. 

Hebrew history is full of instances of it. A 
striking example is recorded as occurring during 
the long war between Syria and Israel. The King 
of Syria had good reasons for suspecting that in 
some manner the King of Israel was made ac- 
quainted with all his intended military operations, 
since he was always prepared to thwart them at 
every point. Accordingly he called together his 
chiefs and demanded to know who it was among 



ANCIENT ORACLES. 79 

them who thus favored the King of Israel, to 
which one of the chiefs replied : *' It is none of 
thy servants, O King : but Elisha, a prophet that 
is in Israel, telleth the King of Israel the words 
that thou speakest in thy chamber." 

Pythagoras, a century before the time of Soc- 
rates, found this faculty believed in, and made 
use of in Egypt, Babylon, and India, and he him- 
self, as the founder of the early Greek philosophy 
and culture, practised and taught the esoteric as 
well as the exoteric methods of acquiring knowl- 
edge, and he is credited with having acquired by 
esoteric methods — internal or mental perception 
and clairvoyant vision — a knowledge of the true 
theory of the solar system as expounded and dem- 
onstrated in a later day by Copernicus. 

As an example of responses by the Greek ora- 
cles, take the experience of Croesus, the rich King 
of Lydia. He sent messengers to ascertain if the 
Pythoness could tell what he, the King of Lydia, 
was doing on a certain specified day. The answer 
came : — 

" I number the sands — I fathom the sea. 
I hear the dumb — I know the thoughts of the silent. 
There cometh to me the odor of lamb's flesh. 
It is seething, mixed with the flesh of a tortoise. 
Brass is beneath it, and brass is also above it." 

The messenger returned and dehvered the reply, 



8o TELEPATHY AND THE SUBLIMINAL SELF. 

when he found that Croesus, in order to do some- 
thing most unHkely to be either guessed or dis- 
covered, had cut in pieces a lamb and a tortoise, 
and seethed them together in a brazen vessel 
having a brazen cover. 

Apollonius Tyaneus, a Pythagorian philoso- 
pher and chief of a school of philosophy which 
was the predecessor of the Alexandrian Neo- 
Platonists, is credited with most remarkable clair- 
voyant powers. Many instances of this faculty 
are recorded and believed upon the best of ancient 
authority. 

One instance relates to the assassination of 
Domitian. Apollonius was in the midst of a dis- 
course at Ephesus, when suddenly he stopped as 
though having lost his train of thought. After a 
moment's hesitation, to the astonishment of his 
auditors, he cried out : " Strike ! strike the tyrant." 
Seeing the surprise of the people he explained 
that at the very moment at which he had stopped 
in his discourse the tyrant was slain. Subse- 
quent information proved that Domitian, the 
reigning tyrant, was assassinated at that very 
moment. 

Ancient historians, philosophers and poets all 
unite in defending the truth of the oracles and 
their power of perceiving events transpiring at a 



ORACLES AUTHENTICATED BY HISTORIANS. 8 1 

distance, and also of foreseeing those in the future. 
Herodotus gives more than seventy examples of 
oracular responses, dreams and portents which he 
affirms were literally fulfilled. Livy gives more 
than fifty, Cicero many striking cases ; and Xeno- 
phon, Plato, Tacitus, Suetonius, and a host of 
other writers all give evidence in the same direc- 
tion. Now whether these responses and visions 
were, as all these intelligent people supposed, 
from a supernatural source, or as we shall en- 
deavor to show, had their origin in certain facul- 
ties naturally appertaining to the mind, and which 
at certain times and under certain favorable cir- 
cumstances came into activity, it certainly shows 
that the most intelligent men amongst all the 
most cultivated nations of the past have been firm 
believers in the reality of clairvoyance. 

Coming down to later times, Emanuel Sweden- 
borg, and Frederica Hauffe, the seeress of Pro- 
verst, were marked examples of the clairvoyant 
faculty. Some have affected to discredit Sweden- 
borg's clairvoyant powers, but apart from his 
revelations regarding a spiritual world, which, of 
course, it is at present impossible to substantiate, 
whatever may be our belief regarding them, if 
human testimony is to be regarded of any value 

whatever in matters of this kind, the following 
6 



S2 TELEPA THY AND THE SUBLIMINAL SELF. 

oft-told incident should be counted as established 
for a verity. 

On a Saturday afternoon in September, 1756, 
Swedenborg arrived in Gottenburg from England. 
Gottenburg is three hundred miles from Stock- 
holm, which was the home of Swedenborg. On 
the same evening he was the guest of Mr. William 
Castel, with fifteen other persons, who were in- 
vited to meet him, and who, on that account, may 
be supposed to have been of more, than ordinary 
consequence and intelligence. 

About six o'clock Swedenborg seemed preoc- 
cupied and restless. He went out into the street, 
but soon returned, anxious and disturbed. He 
said that at that moment a great fire was raging 
at Stockholm. He declared that the house of 
one of his friends was already destroyed, and that 
his own was in danger. At eight o'clock he an- 
nounced that the fire was arrested only three 
doors from his own house. 

The information, and the peculiar manner in 
which it was imparted, created a great sensation, 
not only in the company assembled at Mr. Castel's, 
but throughout the city. On Sunday morning 
the governor sent for Swedenborg, who gave him 
a detailed account of the conflagration and the 
course it had pursued. On Monday, the third 



THE SEERESS OF PROVERST. 83 

day, a courier arrived from Stockholm, who also 
gave the governor a detailed account of the fire, 
which agreed in every respect with that already 
given by Swedenborg. 

Nearly a century after Swedenborg, lived Mme. 
Hauffe, known as the seeress of Proverst. She 
died in 1829 at the age of twenty-eight years. 
As a child she exhibited peculiar psychical ten- 
dencies, but it was only during the last six years 
of her life, and after exhausting illnesses, that her 
peculiar clairvoyant powers were conspicuously 
developed. 

Justinus Kerner, an eminent physician and man 
of letters, was her attending physician during the 
last three years of her life, and afterward became 
her biographer. She first came under his care at 
Weinsberg in 1826. At that time her debility 
was excessive, and nearly every day she fell spon- 
taneously into the somnambulic condition, be- 
came clairvoyant, and related her visions. On 
the day of her arrival at Weinsberg, having gone 
into this trance condition, she sent for Kerner 
but he refused to see her until she awoke. He"^ 
then told her that he would never see her nor 
listen to her while she was in this abnormal state. 
I mention this simply to show that her physician 
was not then at all in sympathy with her regard- 



84 TELEPATHY AND THE SUBLIMINAL SELF. 

ing her peculiar psychological condition, though 
afterward he became thoroughly convinced of its 
genuineness and of her honesty. He relates the 
following incident, which, with many others, came 
under his own observation.: — 

Soon after her arrival at Weinsberg, and while 
still a perfect stranger to her surroundings, while 
in her somnambulic condition, she said that a 
man was near her and desired to speak with her, 
but that she could not understand what he wanted 
to say. She said he squinted terribly, and that 
his presence disturbed her, and she desired him to 
go away. On his second appearance, some weeks 
later, she said he brought with him a sheet of 
paper with figures upon it, and that he came up 
from a vault directly underneath her room. 

As a matter of fact, the wine vaults of Mr. F., 
a wine merchant doing business the next door, 
extended under Mme. Haufie's apartment, and 
Kerner, who was an old resident of the place, 
recognized from the seeress's description of her 
visitor a man who formerly was in Mr. F.'s em- 
ploy as manager and bookkeeper. This man had 
died six years before, and had left something 
wrong with his accounts — in fact, there was a 
deficit of i,ooo florins, and the manager's private 
book was missing. The widow had been sued 



MME. HA UFFE'S CLAIR VO YA NCE. 8 5 

for the amount, and the matter was still unsettled. 
Again and again did this apparition come to Mme. 
Hauffe, bringing his paper and entreating her to 
interest herself in this affair. He declared that 
the necessary paper to clear up the whole matter 
was in a building sixty paces from her bed. 

Mme. Hauffe said that in that building she saw 
a tall gentleman engaged in writing in a small 
room, which opened into a large one where there 
was a desk and chests ; that one of the chests was 
open, and that on the desk was a pile of papers, 
among which she recognized the missing docu- 
ment. 

The wine merchant, being present, recognized 
the office of the chief baihff, who had the business 
in charge. Kerner went at once to the office and 
found everything as described, but, not finding 
the missing paper, concluded that her clairvoy- 
ance was at fault. 

Mme. Hauffe, in her description of the paper 
said it had columns of figures upon it, and at the 
bottom was the number 80. Kerner prepared 
a paper corresponding to this description, and 
at the next seance presented it to her as the 
missing document. But she at once rejected it, 
saying the paper was still where she had before 
seen it. 



86 TELEPA THY AND THE SUBLIMINAL SELF. 

On renewing the search the paper was found as 
described, and the bailiff was to bring it on the 
following day. He came accordingly. In her 
sleep, the seeress exclaimed : 

" The paper is no longer, in its place, but this is 
wonderful. The paper which the man always has 
in his hand lies open. Now I can read more : 
* To be carried to my private book,' and that is 
what he always points to." 

The bailiff was astonished, for instead of bring- 
ing the paper with him as Kerner had directed, he 
had left it lying open on his desk. All these 
things are attested by the bailiff, the wine mer- 
chant, Kerner, and others who witnessed them. 
Kerner himself visited the seeress more than a 
thousand times, and although during the first part 
of his observations he was skeptical, he was never 
able to detect her in the slightest attempt at 
deception. She was in no way elated over her 
peculiar power, on the contrary, she disliked to 
speak of it, and would gladly have been free from 
it altogether. Her clairvoyant powers were tested 
by hundreds of excellent observers during the last 
four years of her life. 

The case of Alexis, the noted French somnam- 
bulist and clairvoyant, is worthy of notice here. 
I remember very well the account of a stance at 



ALEXIS THE FRENCH CLAIRVOYANT. 87 

a gathering of prominent Americans in Paris in 
1853, of which the following is an abstract : — 

Thick masses of cotton were bound firmly over 
his eyes in such a manner as to render it impossible 
for him to see in the ordinary way, and in this 
condition he described pictures, read signatures 
of letters folded in several envelopes, played 
games of cards with almost uniform success, and, 
being asked to select the best pianist in the room 
from a number present, who simply presented 
their hands for his inspection, he quickly selected 
a young man not yet eighteen years old, who had 
won four first prizes at the Conservatoire, and was 
really the best pianist of his age in Europe. 

In playing cards he picked up the trick with a 
rapidity and certainty which showed how clearly 
he knew the position of the cards upon the table. 
Keeping those dealt to him in his left hand he 
held the card he intended to play in his right, and 
never once changed the card upon the play of his 
partner. He knew his adversary's hand as well 
as his own. The writer adds : " The cards used 
were bought by myself, half an hour before, so 
that any suspicion of prepared cards would be 
idle and absurd." 

It remains to note some more recent in- 
stances reported by persons well known and 



88 TELEPA THY AND THE SUBLIMINAL SELF. 

Specially qualified to judge of their truthfulness 
and value. 

The first case which I will present is embodied 
in a report " On the Evidence of Clairvoyance," 
by Mrs. Henry Sidgwick, wife of Prof. Sidgwick, 
formerly president of the Society for Psychical 
Research. It was furnished by Dr. Elliott Coues 
of Washington, D. C, where the incident oc- 
curred, and was afterward investigated by Mr. F. 
W. H. Myers, secretary of the society. Both the 
persons participating in the incident were well 
known to Prof. Coues, and were both persons of 
prominence, one, Mrs. C, being well known as a 
writer and lecturer, and the other, designated as 
Mrs. B., was well known for her rare psychic 
faculties and her absolute integrity. 

The incidents of the case are simple and unim- 
portant, but they have a special value on account 
of their clearness, freedom from the possibility of 
external suggestion, and the well known ability 
and integrity of the reporter. The following are 
the points in the case : — 

In Washington, D. C, January 14, 1889, be- 
tween 2 and 3 o'clock P. M., Mrs. C, having been 
engaged in writing in the Congressional Library, 
left the building at 2 : 40 o'clock, and one or two 
minutes later was at her residence, in Delaware 



SEES HER FRIEND FALL. 89 

Avenue, carrying her papers in her hand. In as- 
cending the steps leading from the street to the 
front yard she stumbled and fell. She was not 
hurt, but ** picked herself up" and went into the 
house. 

About the same hour, certainly between 2 and 
3 o'clock, Mrs. B., sitting sewing in her room a 
mile and a half away, sees the occurrence in all its 
details. The ladies are friends. They had met 
the day previous, but not since. The vision is 
wholly a surprise to Mrs. B. Nevertheless, it is 
so vivid that she at once sits down and writes to 
Mrs. C, describing minutely the occurrence, 
which letter Mrs. C. receives the next morning 
with much surprise. The following is an ex- 
tract from the letter : — 

*' I was sitting in my room sewing this afternoon 
about 2 o'clock, when what should I see but your 
own dear self — but heavens ! in what a position ! 
You were falling up the front steps in the yard. 

" You had on your black skirt and velvet waist, 
your little straw bonnet, and in your hand were 
some papers. When you fell, your hat went in 
one direction and your papers in another. You 
very quickly put on your bonnet, picked up your 
papers, and lost no time in getting into the house. 
You did not appear to be hurt, but looked some- 



90 TELEPA THY AND THE SUBLIMINAL SELF. 

what mortified. It was all so plain to me that I 
had ten notions to one to dress myself and come 
over and see if it were true, but finally concluded 
that a sober, industrious woman like yourself 
would not be stumbling ■ around at that rate, 
and thought I'd best not go on a wild-goose 
chase. 

" Now, what do you think of such a vision as 
that ? Is there any possible truth in it ? I feel 
almost ready to scream with laughter whenever I 
think of it ; you did look too funny spreading your- 
self out in the front yard. ' Great was the fall 
thereof.' I can distinctly call to mind the house 
in which you live, but for the life of me I cannot 
tell whether there are any steps from the side- 
walk into the yard, as I saw them, or not." 

In answer to Mr. Myers' letter of inquiry to 
Mrs. C, she says that the incident was described 
exactly — the dress as correctly as she could have 
described it herself. There were two steps from 
the sidewalk to the yard, and it was on the top 
one of these two steps that Mrs. C. stumbled. 
The manner of the fall, the behavior of the bon- 
net and papers, and her own sensations were all 
correctly described. 

The next case — also embodied in the same re- 
port and examined in the same careful manner 



CLAIRVOYANCE IN THE HYPNOTIC STATE. 91 

by Mr. Myers — was the exhibition of clairvoyant 
powers by a woman called Jane, the wife of a 
pitman in the County of Durham, in England. She 
received no fees and was averse to being experi- 
mented with for fear of being ridiculed or called 
a witch by her associates. 

She was a particularly refined woman for one 
of her class, sweet, gentle, with delicately cut 
features, religious and conscientious to a remark- 
able degree. She was a marked example of those 
who, in the trance condition, could not be in- 
duced by suggestion to do a wrong or a mean 
act, or one which she would consider wrong in 
her normal state. In her sleep she was anaes- 
thetic, felt herself quite on an equality with the 
operator, always spoke of herself as "we," and of 
her normal self as " that girl." The following 
instance of her clairvoyance was furnished by 
Dr. F., who knew her well for many years, and is 
from notes taken at the time : — 

On the morning of the day fixed for the exper- 
iment the doctor arranged with a patient in a 
neighboring village that he should be in a partic- 
ular room between the hours of 8 and 10 in the 
evening. The patient was just recovering from 
a severe illness and was weak and very thin and 
emaciated. This gentleman and the doctor were 



92 TELEPA THY AND THE SUBLIMINAL SELF. 

the only persons who knew anything of the 
arrangement or the proposed experiment. 

After having secured the proper somnambulic 
condition in the subject, Dr. F. directed her at- 
tention to the house where his patient was sup- 
posed to be awaiting the experiment, as arranged. 
She entered the house, described correctly the 
rooms passed through, in one of which she men- 
tioned a lady with black hair lying on a sofa, but 
no gentleman. The doctor's report then goes 
on as follows : — 

" After a little she described the door opening 
and asked with a tone of great surprise : 

" ' Is that a man ? ' 

" I replied, ' Yes ; is he thin or fat ? * 

" * Very fat,' she answered ; / but has^he gen- 
tleman a cork leg ? ' ' 

"I assured her that he had not, and tried to 
puzzle her still more about him. She, however, 
persisted in her statement that he was very fat, 
and said that he had a great ' corporation,' and 
asked me whether I did not think such a fat man 
must eat and drink a great deal to get such a 
corporation as that. She also described him as 
sitting by the table with papers beside him, and 
a glass of brandy and water. 

" ' Is it not wine } ' I asked. 



HER CLAIRVOYANCE PROVED CORRECT. 93 

*' ' No,' she said, ' It's brandy.' 

" * Is it not whisky or rum ? ' 

" ' No, it is brandy,' was the answer ; * and now,* 
she continued, * the lady is going to get her supper, 
but the fat gentleman does not take any.' 

^' I requested her to tell me the color of his 
hair, but she only replied that the lady's hair was 
dark. I then inquired if he had any brains in his 
head, but she seemed altogether puzzled about 
him, and only said she could not see any. I 
then asked her if she could see his name upon 
any of the papers lying about. She replied, 
'Yes;' and upon my saying that the name 
began with E, she spelled each letter of the 
name, " Eglinton." 

" I was so convinced that I had at last detected 
her in a complete mistake that I arose and de- 
clined proceeding further in the experiment, stat- 
ing that, although her description of the house 
and the name of the person was correct, in every- 
thing connected with the gentleman himself she 
had told the exact opposite of the truth. 

" On the following morning Mr. E., my patient, 
asked me the result of the experiment. He had 
found himself unable to sit up so late, he said, 
but wishful fairly to test the powers of the clair- 
voyante, he had ordered his clothes to be stuffed 



94 TELEPATHY AND THE SUBLIMINAL SELF. 

into the form of a human figure, and, to make 
the contrast more striking, he had an extra pillow 
pushed into the clothes, so as to form a ' corpora- 
tion.' This figure had been placed by the table 
in a sitting position and a glass of brandy and 
water and the newspapers placed beside it. The 
name, he said, was spelled correctly, though up 
to that time I had been in the habit of writing it 
* Eglington ' instead of ' Eglinton.' " 

Dr. Alfred Backman of Kolmar, Sweden, a cor- 
responding member of the Society for Psychical 
Research and a good practical hypnotist has had 
unusually good fortune in finding clairvoyants 
among his own patients in that northern country. 
Two in particular, Anna Samuelson and Alma 
Redberg, gave most excellent examples of clair- 
voyant vision, describing rooms, surroundings, 
persons, and also events which were at the 
moment transpiring, though quite unknown and 
unsuspected by any one present at the experi- 
ment. Several of these cases are included in 
Mrs. Sidgwick's report. Instead of these cases, 
however, I prefer to adduce an instance or two 
reported by Dr. Dufay, a reputable physician of 
Blois and subsequently a senator of France. The 
cases were first reported to the French Society de 
Psychologie Physiologique^ which was presided 



HAD JUST DIED IN THE CRIMEA. 95 

over by Charcot, and published in the Revue 
Philosophique for September, 1888. 

Dr. Gerault, a friend of Dr. Dufay, had a maid- 
servant named Marie, who was a natural somnam- 
bule, but who was also frequently hypnotized by 
Dr. Gerault. Dr. Dufay witnessed the following 
experiments : — 

Being hypnotized, Marie was describing to a 
young lady soon to be married, some character- 
istics of her lover, much to the amusement of the 
lady, who was clapping her hands and laughing 
merrily. Suddenly, almost with the rapidity of 
lightning, the scene changed from gay to grave. 
The somnambulist panted for breath, tears flowed 
down her face, and perspiration bathed her brow. 
She seemed ready to fall, and called on Dr. Ge- 
rault for assistance. 

" What is the matter, Marie ? " said the doctor ; 
from what are you suffering ? " 

" Ah, sir ! " said she ; ** ah, sir ! how terrible ! 
he is dead ! " 

" Who is dead ? Is it one of my patients? " 

" Limoges, the ropemaker — you know, in the 
Crimea — he has just died. Poor folks — poor 
folks ! " 

" Come, come, my child," said the doctor, ''you 
are dreaming — it is only a bad dream. 



96 TELEPA THY AND THE SUBLIMINAL SELF, 

" A dream," replied the somnambulist. '' But 
I am not asleep. I see him — he has just drawn 
his last breath. Poor boy ! Look at him." 

And she pointed with her hand, as if to direct 
attention to the scene which was so vivid before 
her. At the same time she would have run away, 
but hardly had she risen to go when she fell back, 
unable to move. It was a long time before she. 
became calm, but, on coming to herself, she had 
no recollection of anything which had occurred. 
Some time after, Limoges senior received news of 
the death of his son. It occurred near Constan- 
tinople on the same day that Marie had witnessed 
it in her clairvoyant vision. 

On another occasion there was a seance at which 
ten or twelve persons were present. Marie was 
put to sleep and had told the contents of several 
pockets and sealed packages prepared for the pur- 
pose. Dr. Dufay came in late purposely, so as to 
be as much out of rapport with her as possible. 
He had just received a letter from an officer in 
Algiers, stating that he had been very ill with 
dysentery from sleeping under canvas during the 
rainy season. This letter he had placed in a thick 
envelope, without address or postmark, and care- 
fully stuck down the edges. This again was 
placed in another dark envelope and closed in like 



READ DR. DUFAY'S SEALED LETTER. 97 

manner. No one but himself knew of the exist- 
ence of this letter. 

Unobserved, he passed the letter to a lady pres- 
ent, indicating that it was to be given to Dr. 
Gerault, who received it without knowing from 
whom it came, and placed it in Marie's hand. 

'' What have you in your hand ? " asked the 
doctor. 

"A letter." 

" To whom is it directed?" 

" To M. Dufay." 

" By whom ? " 

" A military gentleman whom I do not know." 

" Of what does he write ? " 

" He is ill — he writes of his illness." 

" Can you name his illness ? " 

" Oh, yes ; very well. It is like the old wood- 
cutter's of Mesland, who is not yet well." 

'* I understand ; it is dysentery. Now listen, 
Marie. It would give M. Dufay much pleasure 
if you would go and see his friend, the military 
gentleman, and find out hov/ he is at present." 

" Oh, it is too far ; it would be a long journey." 

'' But we are waiting for you. Please go with- 
out losing time." 

(A long pause.) '' I cannot go on ; there is 
water, a lot of water." 
7 



98 TELEPA THY AND THE SUBLIMINAL SELF. 

*' And you do not see any bridge ? '* 

** Of course there is no bridge." 

*' Perhaps there is a boat to cross in, as there is 
to cross the Loire at Chaumont." 

" Boats — yes — but this Loire is a regular flood ; 
it frightens me." 

" Come, come ; take courage — embark." 

(A long silence, agitation, pallor, nausea.) 
" Have you arrived ? " 

** Nearly ; but I am much fatigued, and I do 
not see any people on shore." 

** Land and go on ; you will soon find some 
one." 

" There, now I see some people — they are all 
women, dressed in white. But that is queer — 
they all have beards." 

" Go to them and ask where you will find the 
military gentleman." 

(After a pause.) " They do not speak as we do 
— and I have been obliged to wait while they 
called a little boy with a red cap, who understands 
me. He leads me on, slowly, because we are 
walking in sand. Ah ! there is the military 
gentleman. He has red trousers and an officer's 
cap. But he is so very thin and ill. What a pity 
he has not some of your medicine ! " 

*' What does he say caused his illness?" 



DR. BRITTAN'S CASES. 99 

"He shows me his bed — three planks on pickets 
— over wet sand." 

" Thanks. Advise him to go to the hospital, 
and now return to Blois." 

The letter was then opened and read to the 
company and caused no little astonishment. 

Remarkable instances of clairvoyance have not 
been frequently reported in America. Neverthe- 
less, well-authenticated cases are by no means 
wanting. Dr. S. B. Brittan, in his book entitled 
*' Man and His Relations," relates several such 
cases. The following came under his own obser- 
vation : — 

In the autumn of 1855 he saw Mr. Charles 
Baker of Michigan, who, while out on a hunting 
excursion, had been accidentally shot by his com- 
panion. The charge passed through his pocket, 
demolishing several articles and carrying portions 
of the contents of the pocket deep into the fleshy 
part of his thigh. The accident was of a serious 
character, causing extreme suffering, great de- 
bility, and emaciation, lasting several months, 
as well as much anxiety regarding his ultimate 
recovery. 

He was in this low condition when seen by Dr. 
Brittan. The doctor soon after returned East, 
and called on Mrs. Metier of Hartford, with whose 



lOO TELEPATHY AND THE SUBLIMINAL SELF. 

clairvoyant power he was familiar, and requested 
her to examine into the condition of a young man 
who had been shot. No information was given 
as to his residence, condition, or the circum- 
stances attending the accident. 

She directly found the patient, described the 
wound, and declared that there was a piece of 
copper still in the wound, and that he would not 
recover until it was removed. 

Young Baker, however, was sure he had no 
copper in his pocket at the time of the accident ; 
the medical attendant found no indications of it, 
so it was concluded that the clairvoyant had made 
a mistake. 

Later, however, a foreign substance made its 
appearance in the wound, and was removed by the 
mother of the patient with a pair of embroidery 
scissors; it proved to be a copper cent. The 
removal of the foreign substance was followed by 
rapid recovery. The discovery of the copper coin 
was made by the clairvoyant while at a distance 
of nearly one thousand miles from the patient. 

Mrs. H. Porter, while at her home in Bridge- 
port, Conn., in the presence of the same writer, 
declared that a large steamer was on fire on the 
Hudson River ; that among other objects in the 
vicinity she could clearly distinguish the village 



THE FALL RIVER FIRE SEEN IN MAINE. loi 

of Yonkers, and that the name of the steamer was 
the Henry Clay. The whole sad catastrophe was 
described by her with minuteness, as if occurring 
in her immediate presence. 

The next morning the New York papers gave 
a full account of the burning of the Henry Clay 
off the village of Yonkers — an occurrence which, 
doubtless, some of my readers may still remember 
— corresponding in every important particular 
with that given by the clairvoyant. 

Mr. John Fitzgerald of Brunswick, Me., once a 
somewhat noted temperance lecturer, but at the 
time now referred to a bed-ridden invalid, saw, 
clairvoyantly, and fully described the great fire in 
Fall River, Mass., in 1874, by which a large fac- 
tory was destroyed. He described the com- 
mencement and progress of the fire, the means 
employed to rescue the operatives, criticised the 
work of the firemen, shouted directions, as if he 
were present, and at last as the roof fell in, he fell 
back upon the pillow and said : 

" It is all over — the roof has fallen, and those 
poor people are burned." 

It was not until three days later that Mrs. 
Fitzgerald obtained a paper containing an ac- 
count of the fire. This she read to her husband, 
who frequently interrupted her to tell her what 



I02 TELEPATHY AXD THE SUBLIMIXAL SELF. 

would come next as " he had seen it all." The 
account corresponded almost exactly with the 
description given by Mr. Fitzgerald while the fire 
was in progress. 

I have, myself, recently found a very excellent 
subject whom I will call A. B., whom I first 
hypnotized on account of illness, but who after- 
ward proved to have psychic perception and clair- 
voyant powers of a remarkable character. Once, 
while in the hypnotic condition, I asked her if 
she could go away and see what was transpiring 
in other places, as for instance, at her own home. 
She replied that she would trj^ I then told her to 
go to her home, in a small town three hundred miles 
away and quite unknown to me, and see who was 
in the house and what they were doing. After a 
minute of perfect silence she said : '' I am there." 
" Go in,'* I said, " and tell me what you find." 
She said : " There is no one at home but my 
mother. She is sitting in the dining-room by a 
window ; there is a screen in the window which 
was not there when I left home. My mother is 
sewing." " What sort of sewing is it ? " I asked. 
" It is a waist for D." (her little brother). I wrote 
down ever}^ detail of her description, and then 
awoke her. She had no recollection of anything 
which had transpired, but said she had had 



DESCRIBED RACES TEN MILES DISTANT. 103 

a restful sleep. I then desired her to write at 
once to her mother and ask who was in the 
house at four o'clock this same afternoon, where 
she was, and what she was doing. 

The answer came, describing everything exactly 
as set down in my notes. 

On another occasion when I made my visit, it 
happened to be the day of the races occurring at 
a well known track some ten miles away, and 
members of the household where she was residing 
had gone to witness them. Neither she nor I had 
ever attended these races — we knew nothing of 
the appearance of the place, of the events that 
were expected, nor even of the ordinary routine 
of the sport. She was put into the deep hyp- 
notic sleep, and thinking it a good opportunity to 
test her clairvoyance, I requested her to go to the 
grounds and I carefully directed her on her 
journey. Once within the inclosure she described 
the bright and cheerful appearance — the pavilion, 
the judge's stand, and the position of persons 
whom she knew. She said there was no race 
at the time ; but that boys were going around 
among the spectators and getting money ; that the 
people seemed excited ; that they stood up and 
held out money, and beckoned to the boys to 
come — but she did not know what it meant. I 



I04 TELEPATHY AND THE SUBLIMINAL SELF. 

suggested that perhaps they were betting. She 
seemed to look carefully and then said : " That 
is just what they are doing." She then described 
the race which followed, was much excited, and 
told who of the persons she knew were winners. 
I then said : " You will remember all this and be 
able to tell M. when she comes home." 

It was found that everything had transpired as 
she had described. One of the races had been a 
failure, the horses coming in neck and neck ; all 
bets were cancelled and new bets were made, 
which caused the excitement which she had wit- 
nessed. She surprised those who were present 
by the accuracy of her description, both of the 
place and the events, especially of the excitement 
caused by making the new bets. 

On the same occasion, before awakening her, I 
said to her : "Now, I have something very par- 
ticular to say to you and I want you to pay close 
attention. 

*' This evening when your dinner is brought up 
to you — you, A. B.'s second self, will make 
A. B. see me come in and stand here at the 
foot of the bed. I shall say to you : * Hello ! you 
are at dinner. Well, I won't disturb you,' and 
immediately I shall go. And you will write me 
about my visit." I then awoke her in the usual 



SUGGESTED POST-HYPNOTIC APPEARANCES. 105 

manner. This was Tuesday, July 3, 1894. On 
Thursday following I received this note, which I 
have in my possession. 

" Dear Dr. Mason : — 

'''■ As I was eating my dinner on Tuesday I heard 
some one say ^Good-evening.' I turned around sur- 
prised, as I had heard no one enter the room, and 
there at the foot of the bed I sdi\Y you. 

" I said * Halloo ! won't you sit down ? ' you said : 
* Are you taking your dinner? Then I won't 
detain you,' and before I could detain you, you 
disappeared as mysteriously as you had come. 
Why did you leave so suddenly? Were you 
angry ? Mary, the nurse, says you were not here 
at all at dinner-time. I say you were. Which 
of us is right ? 

" Sincerely, 

''A. B." 

(Full name signed.) 

The clairvoyant faculty is sometimes exercised 
in sleep, and hence the importance so often 
attached to dreams. I have a patient, Miss M. L., 
thirty-five years of age, who has been under my ob- 
servation for the past fifteen years, and for whose 
truthfulness and good sense I can fully vouch. 
From childhood she has been a constant and most 



I06 TELEPATHY AND THE SUBLIMINAL SELF. 

troublesome somnambulist, walking almost every 
night, until two years ago when I first hypnotized 
her and suggested that she should not again leave 
her bed while asleep, and she has not done so. 

This person's dreams are marvellously vivid, 
but her most vivid ones she does not call dreams. 
She says, " When I dream I dream, but when I see 
I see." 

Nine years ago, M. L., had a friend in New 
Mexico whom I will call G., from whom she had 
not heard for months, and of whose surroundings 
she knew absolutely nothing. 

One night she dreamed, or, as she expresses it, 
saw this friend in Albuquerque. She was, as it 
seemed to her, present in the room where he was, 
and saw everything in it with the same degree of 
distinctness as though she were actually present. 
She noticed the matting on the floor, the willow- 
ware furniture, bed, rocking-chair, footstool, and 
other articles. He was talking with a companion, 
a person of very striking appearance, whom she 
also minutely observed as regarded personal 
appearance, dress, and position in the room. 

He was saying to this companion that he was 
about to start for New York for the purpose of 
interesting ca.pitalists in a system of irrigation 
which he had proposed. His companion was 



CLAIR VO YANT DREAM PRO VES TR UE. 1 07 

laughing sarcastically and ridiculing the whole 
scheme. He persisted, and the conversation was 
animated — almost bitter. 

Three weeks later, early one morning, she 
dreamed that this man was in New York. She 
saw him coming up the street leading to her 
house, and saw her father go forward to meet him. 
At breakfast she told her father her dream, and 
they also talked freely about her former dream or 
vision of three weeks before. 

After breakfast her father sat upon the front 
stoop reading the morning paper, and M. L. 
went about some w^ork. Suddenly she heard her 
father call out in a startled sort of way : " Mary, 
sure enough, here comes G. ! " She stepped to 
the window and there was G. coming up the 
street and her father going forward to meet him 
exactly as she had seen him in her dream. He 
had just arrived from the West, and had come for 
the very purpose indicated by his conversation in 
M. L.'s vision. After some general conversation 
M. L. said to G ; " By the way, who was that 
remarkable person you were talking with about 
this journey, three weeks ago?" mentioning the 
night of her dream. With evident surprise he said : 

"What do you mean ? " 

She then related the whole dream just as she 



lo8 TELEPATHY AND THE SUBLIMINAL SELF. 

had experienced it, even to the minutest details. 
His astonishment was profound. He declared 
that the details which she gave could never have 
been so exactly described except by some one 
actually present ; and with some annoyance he 
accused her of playing the spy. 

There are many other instances of remarkable 
clairvoyant vision on her part, and especially two 
which have occurred within the year — the visions 
having been fully described before the events were 
known. 

Such are a few among hundreds of cases which 
might be adduced as examples of the clairvoyant 
power. They are from every period of history, 
from the earliest down to our own times. 
Looked at broadly, they at least show that a 
belief in the clairvoyant power of some specially 
endowed persons has existed throughout the his- 
toric period ; they also exhibit a great similarity 
in their character and the circumstances under 
which they are observed. 

Apollonius stops short in his discourse, ap- 
parently in his natural state, sees the assassination 
of Domitian, and shouts, " Strike the tyrant ! " 

Fitzgerald at Brunswick suddenly beholds the 
burning factories at Fall River, and shouts his 
orders to the firemen. Others spontaneously go 



THE NATURE OF CLAIRVOYANCE. 109 

into the somnambulic condition and only then 
become clairvoyant ; while still others need the 
assistance of a second person to produce somnam- 
bulism and independent vision. 

What is the nature and what the method of 
this peculiar vision which has been named clair- 
voyance ? 

Is it a quickening and extension of ordinary 
vision, or is it a visual perception obtained in 
some other manner, independent of the natural 
organ of sight ? 

It has been noted how vastly the action of the 
senses may be augmented by cultivation, but 
never has cultivation increased vision to such an 
extent as to discover a penny a thousand miles 
away and through opaque coverings. Besides, 
the clairvoyant vision is exercised quite inde- 
pendent of the bodily eye. The eyes may be 
closed, they may be turned upward or inward so 
that no portion of the pupil is exposed to the 
action of light, or they may be covered with 
thick pads of cotton or closed with plasters or 
bandages, yet the clairvoyant vision in proper 
subjects is obtained in just the same degree and 
with just the same certainty as when the eyes 
are fully exposed to the light. 

It is true there has been much doubt and dis- 



<^, 



no TELEPATHY AND THE SUBLIMINAL SELF. 

cussion on this vital point, the objectors main- 
taining that sight was possible and practicable by 
experts, notwithstanding the precautions used in 
blindfolding ; in short, that the whole thing might 
safely be set down as deception and fraud. 

In the face of facts such as are here cited, and 
the thousand others that might be adduced, 
it is hardly possible to treat this charge seri- 
ously. 

To such objectors, cumulative evidence regard- 
ing facts out of their own mental horizon is 
useless. Their motto is : " No amount of evidence 
can establish a miracle ; " and their definition of a 
miracle is something done, or alleged to have been 
done, contrary to the laws of nature. But the 
objector who refuses credence to well-attested 
facts on that ground alone, simply assumes that 
he is acquainted with all the laws of nature. 

A miracle, really, is only something alleged to 
have been done, and we are not able to explain 
how ; nevertheless, it may be perfectly in accord- 
ance with natural laws which we did not under- 
stand or even know existed. To the West Indian, 
whom Columbus found in the New World, an 
eclipse of the sun was a miracle of the most 
terrible character; to the astronomer it was a 
simple fact in nature. To the ignorant boor, 



FABRIC OF THOUGHT MA V NEED CHANGING. 1 1 1 

" talking with Chicago" or cabling between New 
York and London is a miracle ; to the electrician 
it is an everyday, well-understood affair. For a 
long time scientific men did not believe in the 
existence of globular, slowly-moving electricity ; 
if such a thing had existed, it certainly should 
have put in an appearance before members of the 
** Academy," or " Royal Society " sometime in 
the course of all these years ; but it never had 
done so ; only a few cooks, blacksmiths, or back- 
woodsmen had ever seen it, and they certainly 
were not the sort of people to report scientific 
matter ; they did not know how to observe, and 
undoubtedly '' they did not see what they thought 
they saw." But for all that, globular, slowly- 
moving electricity is now a well known fact in 
nature. 

Neither the West Indian, the ignorant boor, nor 
the man of science had, at the time these several 
facts were presented to him, '^ any place in the 
existing fabric of his thought into which such 
facts could be fitted." The fabric of thought in 
each case must be changed, enlarged, modified, 
before the alleged facts could be received or 
assimilated. 

The objector to the fact of clairvoyance and 
other facts in the new psychology is often simply 



112 TELEPATHY AND THE SUBLIMINAL SELF. 

deficient in the knowledge which would enable 
him properly to judge of these facts ; he nnay be 
an excellent mathematician, physicist, editor, or 
even physician, but he has been educated to deal 
with a certain class of facts, and only by certain 
methods, and he is wholly unfitted to deal with 
another class of facts, perhaps requiring quite dif- 
ferent treatment. 

An excellent chemist might not be just the 
man to analyze questions of finance or to testify 
as an expert on the tariff, or a suspension bridge ; 
the " texture of his thought" would need some 
modifying to fit him for these duties ; indeed, he 
is fortunate if he can even be quite sure of mor- 
phia when he sees it ; it might be a ptomaine. 

If, then, the objector to well authenticated facts 
in any department of research expects his objec- 
tions to be seriously considered, he must, at least, 
exhibit some intelligence in that department of 
research to which his objection relates. 

I shall then simply reiterate the statement that 
there is abundant evidence of visual perception 
by some specially constituted persons, independ- 
ent of any use of the physical organ of sight. 

What the exact nature or method of this supra- 
normal vision is, may not yet be absolutely set- 
tled, any more than the exact nature of light or 



CLAIR VO YANCE NO T SUPERNA TURAL. 1 1 3 

of life or even of electricity is settled, and each of 
their various methods of action known, though 
of the fact itself in any of these cases there is no 
doubt. 

From a careful consideration of the best authen- 
ticated facts and examples, we are led to believe 
that the faculty of clairvoyance is no supernatural 
gift, but may be possessed, to some degree, by 
many, perhaps by all, people ; that it is a natural 
condition, developed and brought into exercise 
by a few, but undeveloped and dormant in most ; 
that the faculty may include not only the power 
of obtaining visuaf perceptions at a distance and 
under circumstances which render ordinary vision 
impossible, but also the perception of general 
truth and the relation of things in nature to such 
a degree as to render the person who possesses it 
a teacher and prophet of seemingly supernatural 
endowments. Carefully excluding cases of un- 
usual extension, or skill in using normal percept- 
ive faculties, and also thought-transference, which, 
although bearing a certain relation to clairvoy- 
ance, should not be confounded with it, the phe- 
nomena of independent clairvoyance appear in 
certain persons under the following conditions : — 

In certain states, brought about by disease, and 

at the near approach of death, in the hypnotic 
8 



114 TELEPATHY AND THE SUBLIMINAL SElP. 

condition, whether self-induced or produced by 
the influence of a second person, and especially 
in the condition known as trance ; it may also 
appear in sleep of the ordinary kind — in dreams, 
and especially in the condition of reverie or the 
state between sleeping and waking ; a few persons 
also possess the clairvoyant faculty while in their 
natural condition, without losing their normal 
consciousness. In general it may be said that 
the faculty is most likely to appear when there 
exists a condition of abstraction, and the mind is 
acting without the restraint and guidance of the 
usual consciousness — and it reaches its most per- 
fect exercise when this usual guidance ceases 
entirely — the body becoming inactive and anes- 
thetic and the mind acting independent of its 
usual manifesting organs. Such is the condition 
in trance. 

This view is, of course, in direct opposition to 
the materialistic philosophy which makes the 
mind simply a "group of phenomena," the result 
of organization, and absolutely dependent upon 
that organization for its action, and even for its 
existence. To discuss this question here would 
occupy too much space ; besides, one of the ob- 
jects of these papers is to show this mind, spirit, 
psychos, mentality, " group of phenomena," what- 



INDEPENDENT ACTION OF THE MIND. 1 15 

ever it may be, and whatever name may be ap- 
plied to it, acting under circumstances which will 
enable us to consider with greater intelligence 
this very question, viz. : Whether the mind, 
under some circumstances, is not capable of intel- 
ligent action independent of the brain and the 
whole material organization through which it 
ordinarily manifests itself. 



CHAPTER V. 

DOUBLE OR MULTIPLEX PERSONALITY. 

If there be any one thing in the empirical psy- 
chology of the past which has been considered 
settled past all controversy, it is the unity and 
continuity of human personality. Whatever 
might be believed or doubted concerning the 
after life, for this life at least believers and 
skeptics alike are united in the full assurance of 
a true, permanent, and unmistakable self. The 
philosopher Reid, a hundred years ago, in discuss- 
ing this subject, wrote as follows : — 

" My thoughts and actions and feelings change 
every moment. They have no continued but a 
successive existence, but that self or I to which 
they belong is permanent, and has the same rela- 
tion to all succeeding thoughts, actions, and feel- 
ings which I call mine. The identity of a person 
is perfect — it admits of no degrees — and is not 
divisible into parts." 

Now, while this dogma, which still expresses 
ii6 



FELIDA X'S TWO SELVES. 117 

the general consensus of mankind, may in a sense 
be well founded, still certain facts have been 
ascertained by the observant scouts in the out- 
lying fields of psychology which, unless they can 
be interpreted to mean something different from 
their seeming and obvious import, make strongly 
against that stability and unquestioned oneness 
of human personality about which every indi- 
vidual in his own consciousness may feel so abso- 
lutely certain. What are these facts which have 
come to the notice of students of psychology? 

The case of Felida X., reported by Dr. Azam 
of Bordeaux, is one of the earliest to attract the 
serious attention of medical men and students of 
psychology, and has become classic in relation to 
the subject. 

She was a nervous child, given to moody spells 
and hysterical attacks, and, in 1856, when she was 
about fourteen years of age, she also began to 
have more serious attacks of an epileptiform char- 
acter, from which she would emerge into a new 
and unusual condition, which was at first taken 
to be somnambulism. In this condition her 
general appearance was quite changed, and she 
talked and-a£ted in a manner altogether different 
from her usual sigji. These attacks were at first 
very brief, lasting only a few minutes, but gradu- 



Ii8 TELEPATHY AND THE SUBLIMINAL SELF. 

ally they increased in duration until they occupied 
hours, and even days. 

In her usual state she had no recollection and 
no knowledge Avhatever of her second condition, 
and the whole time spent ih that condition was to 
her a blank ; on the other hand, all the difTerent 
occasions when she had been in this second con- 
dition were linked together, constituting a distinct 
chain of memories and a personality just as con- 
sciously distinct and conspicuous as her original 
self. In her second state she not only had the 
distinct memories connected with her own second- 
ary personality, but she also knew facts concern- 
ing the first or original self, but only as she might 
have knowledge of any other person. 

The two personalities were entirely different in 
character and disposition ; the original one was 
sickly, indolent, and melancholy, while the new 
one was in good health, and in disposition bright, 
cheerful, and industrious. She married early in 
life, and was intelligent and efficient in the care of 
her family, rearing children and attending to the 
little business of a shop. At length this second- 
ary self came to occupy nearly the whole time, 
and considered herself the normal personality, as, 
indeed, she was, being superior in every way to 
the original one. She knew very well how un- 



THE CURIOUS CASE OF ANSEL BOURNE. 119 

happy and miserable was the condition of the 
primary self, and, while she pitied her and did 
what she could to assist her, she disliked to have 
her return. She called the condition of the 
primary self, " that stupid state." 

The lapses of the original or No. i personality 
became at length so frequent, or rather, so con- 
tinuous, that she lost the proper knowledge and 
relation of things about her. She was a stranger 
in her own home, and on that account became 
still more morose and melancholy. To relieve as 
much as possible this distressing state of affairs 
the second self, or No. 2, when she knew that No. 
I was about to appear, would write her a letter, 
informing her of the general condition of the 
household, whom she might expect to meet, and 
where she would find certain needful articles ; she 
would also offer advice regarding the conduct of 
affairs, which was always appropriate and useful 
and far superior to the judgment of the original 
self in the matters to which it referred. 

As a second well marked and abundantly 
authenticated example of this divided or second- 
ary personality, I will refer to a case in our own 
country and in our own vicinity. 

Jan. 17th, 1887, Ansel Bourne, an evangelist, 
left his home in Rhode Island, and, after trans- 



I20 TELEPATHY AND THE SUBLIMINAL SELF. 

acting some business in Providence, one item of 
which was to draw some money to pay for a farm 
for which he had bargained, he went to Boston, 
then to New York, then to Philadelphia, and, 
finally, to Norristown, Perin., fifteen or twenty 
miles from Philadelphia, where he opened a small 
store for the sale of stationery, confectionery, and 
five-cent articles. In this business he was known 
as A. J. Brown. He lived in a room partitioned 
off from the back of the store, eating, sleeping, 
and doing his own cooking there. He rented the 
store from a Mr. Earl, who also, with his family, 
lived in the building. Mr. Brown went back and 
forth to Philadelphia for goods to keep up his 
stock, and seems to have conducted his business 
as if accustomed to it. 

Sunday, March 13th, he went to church, and at 
night went to bed as usual. On Monday, March 
14th, about 5 o'clock in the morning, he awoke 
and found himself in what appeared to him an 
altogether new and strange place ; he thought he 
must have broken into the place, and was much 
troubled, fearing arrest. Finally, after waiting 
two hours in great uneasiness of mind, he got up 
and found the door locked on the inside. He 
went out into the hall, and, hearing some one 
moving about, he rapped at the door. Mr. Earl, 



MR. A.J. BROWN IS ALSO ANSEL BOURNE. 121 

his landlord, opened it, and said : " Good-morn- 
ing, Mr. Brown." 

'' Where am I ? " said Mr. Brown. 

" You are all right," replied Mr. Earl. 

'' Fm all wrong, and my name is not Brown. 
Where am I ?" 

" You are in Norristown." 

" Where is Norristown ? " 

" In Pennsylvania, about seventeen miles west 
of Philadelphia." 

"What day of the month is it?" inquired 
Mr. Brown. 

" The 14th," replied Mr. Earl. 

" Does time run backward here ? When I left 
home it was the 17th." 

"Seventeenth of what? " said Mr. Earl. 

" Seventeenth of January." 

"Now it is the 14th of March," said Mr. Earl. 

Mr. Earl thought Mr. Brown was out of his 
mind, and sent for a physician. To the doctor 
he said his name was Ansel Bourne ; that he 
remembered seeing the Adams Express wagons 
on Dorrance Street in Providence on Jan. 17th, 
and remembered nothing since, until he awoke 
here this morning, March 14th. 

" These people," said he, " tell me that I have 
been here six weeks, and have been living with 



122 TELEPATHY AND THE SUBLIMINAL SELF. 

them all this time ; I have no recollection of ever 
having seen one of them, until this morning." 

His nephew, Mr. H., was telegraphed to in 
Providence. 

"Do you know Ansel Bourne? " 

Reply : " He is my uncle ; wire me where he 
is, and if well." 

Mr. H., went on to Norristown, took charge of 
his uncle and his affairs, sold out his store prop- 
erty, and Mr. A. J. Brown went back and resumed 
his life in Rhode Island as Ansel Bourne, but the 
time from Jan. 17th to March 14th was to him a 
blank. 

Prof. James of Harvard and Dr. Hodgson, 
Secretary of the American Branch of the Society 
for Psychical Research, who reported this case to 
the society, now became interested in the matter. 
They went to see Ansel Bourne and learned the 
above history ; but of the journey from. Provi- 
dence to Norristown in January no account of any 
kind could be obtained. Finally, he was put into 
the hypnotic condition, when he was again A. J. 
Brown, and gave a connected account of his 
journey to Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and 
of his stay in each of these cities ; of his arrival 
at Norristown, and of his experience there up to 
the morning of March 14th, when everything 



A NSEL B O URNE HYPNO TIZED IS A./.BRO WN. 123 

was again confused. As A. J. Brown he knew of 
Ansel Bourne and of his remarkable history, but 
could not state positively that he had ever met 
him. 

This transition was repeatedly made. Imme- 
diately on being put in the hypnotic trance and 
aroused to somnambulism he was A. J. Brown, a 
distinct personality, perfectly sane, and with a full 
appreciation of the relation of things as relating 
to that personality, and with a distinct chain of 
memories, beliefs, and affections ; but, when in- 
troduced to the wife of Ansel Bourne, he entirely 
repudiated the idea of her ever having been his 
wife, though he might some time have seen her. 

Immediately on being awakened from this hyp- 
notic condition he was Ansel Bourne, with his 
usual consciousness, beliefs, affections, and chain 
of memories ; but the primary Ansel Bourne per- 
sonality had no knowledge whatever of the sec- 
ondary, or A. J. Brown, personality, and for any 
act, either criminal or righteous, committed by 
the person A. J. Brown, the person Ansel Bourne 
had no more knowledge and consequently no 
more responsibility than for any good or bad 
action committed by a person in Australia and of 
whose existence he was ignorant. 

A few other cases quite similar and in every 



124 TELEPATHY AND THE SUBLIMINAL SELF 

respect of equal interest have been observed, not- 
ably that known as Louis V., which was reported 
by Dr. Voisin of Paris and by several other well- 
known French physicians, under whose care from 
time to time he has been, and whose several 
reports have been summed up by Mr. Frederick 
W. H. Myers, the efficient London Secretary of 
the Society for Psychical Research. 

Here the stability of personality was unsettled 
at the age of fourteen by a terrible fright from a 
viper. Four or five distinct personalities were 
represented. 

(i) \\\ his childhood, previous to his fright by 
the viper, he had good health and was an ordi- 
nary, quiet, obedient, well-behaved boy. 

(2) A new personality, of which the primary self 
had no knowledge, was induced by the fright. 
This No. 2 personality had frequent epileptic at- 
tacks, but was able to work, learning the trade of 
a tailor. 

(3) After one of these attacks of great violence, 
lasting fifty hours, another personality came to 
the surface — a greedy, violent, quarrelsome, 
drunken, thievish vagabond, paralyzed on one 
side, and with an impediment in his speech. He 
was an anarchist, an atheist, and a blackguard, 
always ranting and thrusting his opinions upon 



L O ms V'S DIFFERENT PERSONALITIES. 1 2 5 

those about him, perpetrating bad jokes, and prac- 
ticing disgusting familiarities with his physicians 
and attendants. In this state, he knows nothing of 
the tailor's business, but he is a private of marines. 

(4) He is a quiet, sensible man, retiring in be- 
havior and modest in speech. If he is asked his 
opinions upon politics or religion, he bashfully 
replies that he would rather leave such things 
to wiser heads than his. In this condition he is 
without paralysis and speaks distinctly. 

(5) As a man forty years of age he returns to the 
condition of childhood previous to his fright — a 
child in intellect and knowledge, having no oc- 
cupation ; he is simply an ordinary, quiet, well- 
behaved, obedient boy. 

Each of these personalities was distinct from 
all the others ; the earlier ones had no knowledge 
of those which came after them ; the later ones had 
a knowledge of the earlier ones, but only as they 
might have knowledge of any other person. 

A fourth typical case is that of Alma Z., re- 
cently reported by me for The Journal of Nervous 
and Mental Diseases. In this case, an unusually 
healthy, strongly intellectual girl, an expert in 
athletic sport and a leader wherever she might be, 
on account of overwork, and finally, of broken- 
down health, developed a second, and, later, a 



126 TELEPATHY AND THE SUBLIMINAL SELF. 

third personality. Each was widely different from 
the others, all were normal so far as a perfect 
knowledge of and adaptation to their surroundings 
were concerned, and all were of unusual intellect- 
ual force and brightness, as- well as moral worth ; 
but each was distinct, peculiar, and even in 
marked contrast to the others in many important 
characteristics. No. i had no knowledge of No. 
2 nor of No. 3, except from circumstances and the 
report of others, and also from letters which 
passed between them giving information to No. 
I regarding changes which had occurred in her 
absence, as, for instance, of expected company or 
other engagement which it would be important 
for her to know. 

Both of the later personalities were peculiarly 
fond of No. I, and devoted to her welfare on ac- 
count of her superior knowledge and admirable 
character. The case has been under my observa- 
tion, both professionally and socially, for many 
years, and, in addition to its typical character, it 
presented an example of the singular fact of the 
persistence of the later personality, with the abil- 
ity to observe, retain its chain of memories, and 
afterward report them, while the primary self was 
at the same time the dominant and active person- 
ality. 



CAME FOR HER FAVORITE CONCERTO, 127 

An instance of this occurred at one of the con- 
certs of a distinguished pianist a few years since. 
No. 3 was the reigning personality, and she was 
herself a lover of music and an excellent critic. 
Beethoven's concerto in C major was on the pro- 
gramme, and was being performed in a most 
charming manner by soloist and orchestra. I was 
sitting near her in the box, when all at once I 
noticed a change in the expression of her face, 
which denoted the presence of No. i. She list- 
ened with intense interest and pleasure to the 
performance, and at its close I spoke a few words 
to her, and she replied in her usual charming man- 
ner. It was No. I without doubt. Soon after, 
she leaned back in her chair, took two or three 
quick, short inspirations, and No. 3 was present 
again. She turned to me smiling and said : 

" So No. I came for her favorite concerto; 
wasn't it splendid that she could hear it?" 

I said : " Yes ; but how did you know she was 
here?" 

" Oh, I sat on the front of the box," she said. 
" I heard the music, too, and I saw you speaking 
to her." 

The four cases here briefly outlined represent 
both sexes, two distinct nationalities, and widely- 
varying conditions in life. In each case one or 



128 TELEPATHY AND THE SUBLIMINAL SELF. 

more personalities crop out, so to speak, come to 
the surface, and become the conscious, active, 
ruHng personaHty, distinct from the original self, 
having entirely different mental, moral, and even 
physical, characteristics; different tastes, and dif- 
ferent sentiments and opinions ; personalities en- 
tirely unknown to the original self, which no one 
acquainted with that original self had any reason 
to suppose existed in connection with that organi- 
zation. 

The cases present so many points of similarity 
in their history as to render it probable, if not 
certain, that some common principle, law, or 
mental state underlies them all — some law which, 
if clearly defined, would be valuable in reducing 
to order the seeminglylawless mass of phenomena 
which constantly meets us in this new and but 
little explored field of research. 

It may be, also, that other mental states more 
frequently met with and more easily observed 
present points in common with these more strik- 
ing and unusual ones ; and that they also may 
assist us in finding the clue. 



CHAPTER VI. 

NATURAL SOMNAMBULISM — HYPNOTIC SOMNAM- 
BULISM — DREAMS. 

The first of these more accessible conditions to 
claim attention is natural somnambulism, or sleep- 
walking. The phenomena of this peculiar state 
have been observed from time immemorial, and 
have always been looked upon as one of the most 
wonderful and interesting subjects in the domain 
of the old psychology. 

In this state the subject, while apparently in 
ordinary sleep, arises from his bed and proceeds, 
sometimes to perform the most ordinary, every- 
day actions — cooking a dinner, washing clothes, 
sawing wood, or going out to a neighboring 
market town to transact business ; sometimes, on 
the other hand, he does the most unusual things; 
he performs perilous journeys in dangerous and 
unfamiliar places in perfect safety and with un- 
usual ease ; sometimes intellectual work of a dif- 
ficult nature, such as had baffled the student in 
9 129 



130 TELEPATHY AND THE SUBLIMINAL SELF. 

his waking hours, is easily accompHshed, and he 
finds the solution of his mathematical problem or 
the needed point in his argument all plainly 
wrought out and prepared for him when he goes 
to his desk the following rriorning ; moreover, if 
the work from any cause should be interrupted, 
and the same conditions recur upon the follow- 
ing or some subsequent night, it may be re- 
sumed at the point where it was interrupted ; or 
if the somnambulist talks, as well as acts, in his 
sleep the conversation shows that each succeed- 
ing occasion is connected with previous ones, all 
together constituting a chain of memories similar 
to that of the different personalities which have 
been presented in the four cases already described. 

Sometimes all these different actions are ac- 
complished without light or with the eyes fast 
closed, or else open and staring, but without 
vision. Sometimes, however, the new personality 
developed in the sleep of the somnambulist fails 
to come into proper relations with his surround- 
ings, when he may also fail to accomplish the 
dangerous journey, and may walk from an open 
window or an unguarded balcony with disastrous 
results. 

The second condition which presents analogies 
to the duplex or multiplex pesonalities, which 



MADAME B'S HYPNOTIC PERSONALITIES. 131 

are under consideration, is that of the somnam- 
buHsm which occurs in the hypnotic sleep. 
While usually the hypnotic subject is passive and 
unconsciously receives the suggestions which are 
impressed upon him, not unfrequently a person- 
ality comes to the front which acts independently, 
and presents all the characteristics which we have 
found pertaining to a distinct personality. 

A rare example of this alternating personality 
brought about by hypnotism is afforded by the 
French subject, Mme. B., w^hose acquaintance we 
have already made as a subject upon whom hyp- 
notism at a distance was successfully carried out 
by Prof. Janet and Dr. Gibert of Havre. As we 
have already seen, in her ordinary condition Mme. 
B. is a stolid, substantial, honest French peasant, 
about forty years of age, of very moderate intelli- 
gence, and without any education or any am- 
bition for notoriety. In this state Prof. Janet 
calls her Leonie. 

Hypnotized, she is at once changed into a 
bright, vivacious, mischief-loving, rather noisy 
personality, who considers herself on excellent 
terms with the doctor, and whom the professor 
names Leontine. Later, by further hypnotiza- 
tion and a deeper trance, there appears a sedate, 
sensible personality, intellectually much superior 



132 TELEPATHY AND THE SUBLIMINAL SELF. 

to Leonie, the primary self, and much more digni- 
fied than the vivacious Leontine, and this third 
personality Prof. Janet calls Leonore. 

Leontine, the hypnotic or second self, knows 
Leonie, the original Mme. B., very well, and is 
very anxious not to be confounded with her. She 
always calls her " the other one," and laughs at 
her stupidity. She says, " That good woman is 
not I, she is too stupid." One day Prof. Janet 
hypnotized Leonie, and as usual at once Leon- 
tine was present. Prof. Janet then suggested to 
Leontine that when she awoke and Leonie had 
resumed the command, she (Leontine) should 
take off the apron of Leonie, their common apron, 
on their one physical personality, and then tie it on 
again. She was then aroused from her hypnotic 
condition, and at once Leonie was present without 
the slightest knowledge of Leontine, for she 
never knew of this second personality, nor of hyp- 
notic suggestion in any form. Leonie, supposing 
the professor's experiment was over, was conduct- 
ing him to the door, talking indifferently in her 
slow, dull way, and at the same time unconsciously 
her fingers were working at her apron-strings. 
The loosened apron was falling off when the pro- 
fessor called her attention to it. She exclaimed, 
"Why, my apron is falling off!" and then, fully 



INDEPENDENT OF THE PRIMARY SELF. 133 

conscious of what she was doing, she replaced and 
tied it on again. She then continued her talk. 
She only supposed that somehow accidentally the 
apron had come untied and she had retied it, and 
that was all. 

To the now submerged Leontine, however, this 
was not enough ; her mission had not been com- 
pleted, and at her silent prompting Leonie again 
fumbled at the apron-strings ; unconsciously she 
untied and took off the apron, and then put it on 
again without her attention having been drawn 
to what she had now the second time done. The 
next day Prof. Janet again hypnotized Leonie 
and Leontine made her appearance. 

" Well," said she, " I did what you told me yes- 
terday. How stupid ' the other one * looked while 
I took her apron off ! Why did you tell her that 
her apron was falling off? Just for that, I had to 
do the job all over again." 

Here the hypnotic or secondary self, as In my 
own reported case, appears as a persistent entity, 
remembering and reasoning, while the primary 
self was at the same time in command of their 
common body. Leontine not only caused L^onie 
to untie and retieher apron, but she enjoyed the 
fun, remembered it, and told it the next day. 

Again L^onore was as much ashamed of L^on- 



134 TELEPATHY AND THE SUBLIMINAL SELF. 

tine's flippancy as Leontine was of Leonie's stu- 
pidity. 

*'' You see well enough," she said, " that I am 
not that prattler, that madcap. We do not re- 
semble each other in the least." 

In fact, she sometimes gave Leontine good 
counsel in regard to her behavior, and in a pecul- 
iar manner — by producing the hallucination of 
hearing a voice, thus again showing the conscious 
activity of the submerged self while a primary 
self was at the same time dominant and active. 
As Dr. Janet relates the incident, Leontine was 
one day in an excited, hysterical condition, noisy 
and troublesome with her chatter, when suddenly 
she stopped her senseless talk and cried out with 
terror : 

" Oh ! Who is it there talking to me like that ? " 

" No one was speaking to you." 

" Yes, there on the left." And she opened a 
closet door in the direction indicated, to see that 
no one was hidden there. 

" What is it that you hear ? " asked the pro- 
fessor. 

"' r hear a voice on the left there which keeps 
saying to me : * Enough, enough ; be quiet. You 
are a nuisance ! *" which, the professor remarks, 
was exactly the truth. 



THEY ARE INDEPENDENT OF EACH OTHER. 135 

Leonore, in her turn, was then brought to the 
surface. 

" What was it that happened," asked Prof. 
Janet, " when Leontine was so frightened ? " 

" Oh, nothing," she replied. ** I told her she 
was a nuisance and to keep quiet. I saw she was 
annoying you. I don't know why she was so 
frightened." 

I may be pardoned for mentioning one other 
fact regarding the relationship of these singular 
personalities, because it illustrates more pointedly 
if possible than anything else their entire duplex 
and separate character. Leonie or Madame B. is 
married, but Leontine is not. Madame B. how- 
ever, was hypnotized at her accouchements, and 
became L6ontine. So Leontine was the presiding 
personality when the children were born. Leon- 
tine therefore considers herself the mother of 
two children, and would be greatly grieved were 
any doubts expressed regarding her right of 
motherhood in them. 

The analogies between the mental conditions 
presented respectively in ordinary somnambulism 
and the somnambulism of the hypnotic trance, 
and the mental conditions presented in the four 
cases previously recited are numerous and ob- 
vious ; in fact, they seem as indeed they are, like 



136 TELEPATHY AND THE SUBLIMINAL SELF. 

the same conditions differently produced and 
varying in the length of time they occupy, and it 
is evident that in them there is brought to view a 
mental state of sufficient uniformity, as well as of 
sufficient interest and importance, to be worthy of 
serious consideration. 

The facts thus far brought into view are these : 
That in a considerable number of persons there 
may be developed, either spontaneously or artifi- 
cially, a second personality different in character 
and distinct in its consciousness and memories 
from the primary or original self ; that this second 
personality is not a mere change of conscious- 
ness, but in some sense it is a different entity, 
having a power of observation, attention and 
memory not only when the primary self is sub- 
merged and without consciousness or volition, but 
also at the same time that the primary self is in 
action, performing its usual offices, and in its turn 
it is equally capable of managing the affairs and 
performing the offices properly pertaining to the 
common body whenever needed for that purpose. 

Reckoning these different personalities as No. i, 
No. 2, No. 3, etc.. No. i has no knowledge of No. 
2, nor of any succeeding personality, nor of their 
acts, but the time occupied by them is to No. i a 
blank, during which it is without volition, mem- 



SEPARATE AND DISTIXCT PERSONALITIES. 137 

ory, or consciousness. No. 2 has a distinct con- 
sciousness and chain of memories of its own, but 
It also knows more or less perfectly the history 
and acts of No. i — it knows this history", how- 
ever, only as pertaining to a third person ; it 
knows nothing of No. 3, nor of any personality 
subsequently coming into activity. No. 3 has 
also its distinct personality, and knows both No. 
I and No. 2, but knows them only as separate and 
distinct personalities ; it does not know any per- 
sonaHty coming into activity after itself. 

So distinct are these personalities that No. 2 
not only may not possess the acquirements, as, 
for instance, the book knowledge, trade, or occu- 
pation of No. I, but may possess other capabili- 
ties and acquirements entirely foreign to No. i, 
and of which it possessed no knowledge. 

Ansel Bourne was a farmer and preacher, and 
knew nothing of storekeeping. A. J. Brown, the 
second personality, was a business man, neither 
farmer nor preacher. Louis V., as No. 2, was a 
tailor, and a very good boy ; as No. 3, he was a 
private of marines, and knew nothing of tailor- 
ing, and he was a moral monster ; while, in what 
might be called his No. 5 condition, he was again 
an undeveloped child, as he was before his fright. 

Still another fact which comes prominently into 



138 TELEPATHY AND THE SUBLIMINAL SELF. 

view in examining these cases is that the No. 2 
personaHty may not, by any means, be inferior to 
the No. I, or original self. In none of the cases 
cited has the intellectual capacity of the later 
developed personality been inferior to that of the 
original self, and generally it was notably superior ; 
only in the No. 3 personality of Louis V. was the 
moral state worse than in No. i, and, in general, 
the moral standing of No. 2 or No, 3 was fully 
equal to the primary self. 

The emergence and dominance of a secondary 
personality, therefore, does not by any means 
imply that the general standing of the individual 
dominated by this second personality, as judged 
by disinterested observers, is in any way inferior 
to the same individual dominated by the primary 
self, but, on the contrary, a superior personality 
is rather to be expected, and especially is this 
true when the secondary personality is intelli- 
gently sought and brought to view by means of 
hypnotism. 

It is, however, quite impossible by ^.ny d priori 
reasoning, or from the character of the primary 
self, to form any definite estimate concerning the 
character or general characteristics of any new 
personality which may make its appearance, either 
spontaneously or through the aid of hypnotism. 



GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS. 139 

Having become to a certain degree familiarized 
with the idea that in some persons, at least, and 
under some peculiar circumstances, a second per- 
sonality may come to the surface and take the 
place for a longer or shorter time of the primary 
self, it may be asked whether, after all, these com- 
paratively few persons in which this unusual 
phenomena has been observed are essentially dif- 
ferent in their mental constitution from other 
people. 

When those best acquainted with the slender 
and melancholy Felida X., or the ordinary, quiet, 
well-behaved Louis V. ; the industrious and re- 
spected evangelist Ansel Bourne, or the large- 
brained, intellectual leader of women, Alma Z., 
saw them in their ordinary state, before any 
subliminal personality had emerged and made 
itself known, no one of those most intimate ac- 
quaintances, no expert in character-reading, no 
student of mental science could have given any 
reasonable intimation that any one of them 
would develop a second personality, much less 
give any trustworthy opinion as to the character 
which the new personality would possess. 

A few months ago I was called in haste to see a 
patient, a large, strong man of one hundred and 
eighty pounds weight, who had been thrown down 



I40 TELEPATHY AMD THE SUBLIMIWAL SELF. 

and trampled upon by his nineteen-year-oldson dur- 
ing an attack of somnambulism, and bad received 
such serious injuries as to require immediate sur- 
gicalaid. The next day this son came to consult me 
r^rarding his unfortunate habit of sieep-walldng, 
which has often got him into trouble before, and 
has now resulted in serious injury to his father. 
He is a slight youth of one hundred and twenty 
pounds weight, light hair, gray eyes, and a bright, 
frank face, expressive of good health and good 
nature — " a perfect gentleman," as his father ex- 
pressed it, " when himself, but ten men cannot 
manage him when he ^^\s up in his sleep ; he 
will do what he sets out to do." 

Who would ever imagine that this slender, 
good-natured, gentlemanly lad, sooner than any 
other lad, would in his sleep develop somnam- 
bulism and a second personality, or that when it 
came that second personality should prove a stub- 
bom Samson? 

Little could Prof. Janet imagine that beneath 
the surface consciousness of that serene and 
stupid Leonie dwelt the frisky, vivacious, fun- 
loving Leontine, waiting only the magic key of 
hypnotism to unlock and bring her to the surface 
to reign instead of the heavy Leonie. 

The people who, in various ways, develop 



DOUBLE PERSONALITY IN DREAMIXG. 141 

second personalities may not differ, it seems, in 
any perceptible manner from other people ; is it 
not quite possible, then, that other normal, ordi- 
nary people, possess a second personality, deep- 
down beneath their ordinary^, everj-day self, and 
that under conditions which favor a readjustment, 
this hidden subliminal self may emerge and be- 
come for a longer or a shorter time the conscious, 
acting one ; and not only so, but may prove to be 
the brighter and better organized of the two? 

Having now, as it were, a chart, imperfect 
though it be, of this outlying region, having some 
idea what to look for, and in what direction to 
look for it, it is possible that glimpses of this 
subliminal personahty which each one uncon- 
sciously carries with him may be obtained under 
ordinar}' conditions and in ever\-day life, more 
frequently and more easily than we had imagined ; 
for, as Ribot expresses it, the ordinary conscious 
personality is only a feeble portion of the whole 
psychical personality. 

One example of this more usual form of double 
personality is afforded in ordinary dreaming. 
The dream country-, like most of this outlying 
territor}^ has for the most part been studied with- 
out chart or compass. There is scarcely a point 
connected with the discussion of the subject upon 



142 TELEPATHY AND THE SUBLIMINAL SELF. 

which the most eminent authorities are not 
divided ; it is Locke against Descartes, Hamilton 
against Locke, and Hobbes against the field. 

If there be any one point, however, on which 
there is tolerable unanimity among all writers, 
ancient and modern, great and small, it is the 
absence in dreams of the normal acts and pro- 
cesses of volition, and, especially, of the faculty 
of attention. Now, this is exactly the condition 
which is conducive to the more or less perfect 
emergence and activity of the subliminal self, 
under whatever circumstances it occurs. 

There is first, loss of consciousness from cata- 
lepsy, fright, depressing illness, hypnotism, or 
natural sleep, that is to say, the power of atten- 
tion or volition in the primary self is abolished ; 
then comes a readjustment of personalities, vary- 
ing in completeness according to the ease with 
which, in different persons, this readjustment may 
be effected, and 'according to the completeness of 
the abolition of the power of attention and voli- 
tion. 

In sleep the conditions are favorable for this 
readjustment, and the subliminal self comes more 
or less perfectly to the surface ; then appears that 
most peculiar and interesting series of pictures 
and visions which we call dreams ; sometimes the 



DOUBLE PERSONALITY AND GENIUS. 143 

rearranged, or rather unarranged, impressions 
and perceptions of the waking hours brought to- 
gether, possibly just before the power of attention 
IS entirely lost ; sometimes the Puck-like work of 
the subliminal personality, the Leontines of the 
dream-country influencing the unconscious or 
semi-conscious primary self ; sometimes the verid- 
ical or truth-telling dreams, which have been the 
wonder of all ages, and sometimes giving com- 
plete and active supremacy to the subliminal self 
as in natural somnambulism. Another portion of 
the field in which it might be profitable to look 
for evidence of the existence of a subliminal per- 
sonality is in the eccentric Avork of genius ; and 
still another, in the unexpected and often heroic 
actions of seemingly ordinary persons under the 
stress and stimulus of a great emotion, as of joy, 
sorrow, or anger, or of intense excitement, as for 
instance, the soldier in battle, the fireman at the 
post of danger, or the philosopher or astronomer 
on the eve of a new discovery ; in all these cases 
the ordinary personality with its intense self- 
consciousness and self-considering carefulness is 
submerged — it disappears — the power of volun- 
tary attention to mental states or physical action 
is lost ; a new and superior personality comes to the 
surface and takes control. The supreme moment 



144 TELEPATHY AND THE SUBLIMINAL SELF. 

passes, and the primary self resumes sway, scarcely 
conscious of what has been done or how it was 
accomplished ; even sensation has been abolished, 
and it is only now that he discovers the bleeding 
bullet-wound, the charred niember, or the broken 
bone. 

In physical science, whenever some new fact or 
law or principle has been discovered, it is at once 
seen that many things which before were obscure, 
or perhaps could only be accounted for by a 
theory of chance, or of direct interference by an 
omnipotent Deity, are now illuminated by a new 
light, and order reigns where before only confu- 
sion and darkness were visible. Something of 
the same sort is beginning to be recognized in the 
w^orld of mental and psychical phenomena. If 
the mathematical exactness which measured the 
force of gravity, or placed the sun in one of the 
foci of an ellipse instead of the centre of a circle 
cannot be applied here, it is only on account of 
the vast complexity of the problem present- 
ed, and of which we know so few of the ele- 
ments. 

When matter alone is concerned we know 
exactly how it will act under given conditions. 
When life is added, the problem becomes more 
complex. The general law of evolution and the 



RECOGNITION OF A SUBLIMINAL SELF. 145 

Special law of natural selection in the development 
of species are accepted facts, although we cannot 
with success apply to them mathematical for- 
mulae. When mind is added to life, the problem 
becomes still more complicated and mathematical 
exactness still less likely to be attained. Many 
facts, however, are being ascertained in psychical 
science, and some principles are being established 
which help to bring order out of confusion and 
shed light on some dark places. 

The recognition of a subliminal self as forming 
a part of the psychical organization of man will 
throw light upon many obscure mental phenom- 
ena and bring order out of seemingly hopeless 
confusion. Placed before us as a working hypoth- 
esis, many other facts, before errant and un- 
classified, group themselves about it in wonderful 
clearness and harmony. 

Granting, then, provisionally at least, the reality 
of the secondary self, what are its relations to the 
primary self and their common physical organiza- 
tion, and how came it to occupy these relations ? 
Mr. Frederick W. H. Myers, to whom I have 
already referred, whose acute intellect and schol- 
arly attainments have been of the highest value 
to the society in every department of its inves- 
tigations, has also taken up this subject with his 
10 



146 TELEPATHY AND THE SUBLIMINAL SELF. 

usual skill and judgment. He looks upon it from 
the standpoint of evolution, commencing with 
the earliest period of animal life. He compares 
the whole psychical organization, together with 
its manifesting physical organization, to the 
thousand looms of a vast manufactory. 

The looms are complex and of varying patterns, 
for turning out different sorts of work. They are 
also used in various combinations, and there are 
various driving bands and connecting machinery 
by which they may severally be connected or dis- 
connected, but the motive power which drives the 
whole is constant for all, and all works automat- 
ically to turn out the styles of goods that are 
needed. 

** Now, how did I come to have my looms and 
driving-gear arranged in this particular way? 
Not, certainly, through any deliberate choice of my 
own. My ancestor, the ascidian, in fact, inherited 
the business when it consisted of little more than 
a single spindle ; since his day my nearer ances- 
tors have added loom after loom." 

Changes have been going on continually ; some 
of the looms are now quite out of date, have long 
been unused, and are quite out of repair or fallen 
to pieces. Others are kept in order because the 
style of goods which they turn out is still useful 



MR. F. W. H. MYERS' EXCELLENT WORK. 147 

and necessary. But the class of goods called for 
has greatly changed of late. For instance, the 
machinery at present in operation is best adapted 
to turning out goods of a decidedly egoistic style, 
for self-preservation, persistence in the struggle 
for life, and for self-gratification ; but a style is 
beginning to be called for of the altruistic pat- 
tern. For this kind of goods the machinery is 
not well adapted. It is old-fashioned, and changes 
are necessary. If there are any looms in the 
establishment unknown and unused which can be 
turned to account, or any way of modifying such 
as we have to meet the demand, it is for our in- 
terest to know it. 

But the methods of adjustment, and arrange- 
ments for bringing new looms into operation are 
hidden and difficult of access, so we observe 
factories where spontaneous readjustments are 
going on and new looms, not known to have been 
in the establishment, are being brought automat- 
ically into action and are found to work fairly 
well. Such instances are found in the establish- 
ment of Fehda X. or Louis V., from which valu- 
able hints are obtained regarding changes and 
readjustments. 

Furthermore, in hypnotism, we find a safe and, 
at the same time, powerful lever, for readjustment, 



148 TELEPATHY AND THE SUBLIMINAL SELF. 

by means of which In some establishments new 
looms can be brought into play and shut off 
again almost at will ; and often while the new 
looms are at work doing good service we are able 
to get at the old ones, repair and modernize them 
so as to make them useful, and the immense value 
of hypnotism in this educational and reformatory 
work has hardly begun to be known or appre- 
ciated. A single instance out of many must 
sufiBce for illustration. 

In the summer of 1884 there was at the Salpe- 
triere a young woman of a deplorable type, 
Jeanne S., who was a criminal lunatic, filthy, vio- 
lent, and with a life history of impurity and crime. 
M. Auguste Voisin, one of the physicians of 
the staff, undertook to hypnotize her May 31st. 
At that time she was so violent that she could 
only be kept quiet by a strait-jacket and the 
constant cold douche to her head. She would 
not look at M. Voisin, but raved and spat at him. 
He persisted, kept his face near and opposite to 
hers, and his eyes following hers constantly. In 
ten minutes she was in a sound sleep, and soon 
passed into the somnambulistic condition. The 
process was repeated many days, and gradually 
she became sane while in the hypnotic condition, 
but still raved when she awoke. 



M. VOISIN'S REMARKABLE CASE. 149 

Gradually, then, she began to accept hypnotic 
suggestion, and would obey trivial orders given 
her while asleep, such as to sweep her room, etc. ; 
then suggestions regarding her general behavior j 
then, in her hypnotic condition, she began to ex- 
press regret for her past life and form resolutions 
of amendment, which she fully adhered to when 
she awoke. Two years later she was a nurse in 
one of the Paris hospitals, and her conduct was 
irreproachable. M. Voisin has followed up this 
case by others equally striking. 

Such is an imperfect sketch of the discoveries, 
experiments, and studies which have been made 
in the domain of human personality. It is merely 
a sketch, and certainly it is in no spirit of dog- 
matism that it is presented ; but as a collection 
of facts relating to human nature and the con- 
stitution and action of the human mind, it is 
at least curious. 

It need not destroy our convictions regarding 
the essential unity of personality, but it must 
necessarily enlarge our conceptions of what con- 
stitutes an individual, and how under various cir- 
cumstances that individual may act. 

From many points of view, and in relation to 
many departments of study and of human de- 
velopment — legal, moral, social, and educational 



150 TELEPATHY AND THE SUBLIMINAL SELF. 

' — the subject presents important bearings ; and, 
furthermore, in the solution of other psychological 
problems it will be found to possess the greatest 
possible interest and value. 



CHAPTER VII. 

AUTOMATISM — PLAXCHETTE. 

Our ordinary actions, both physical and mental, 
are, for the most part, subject to our own volun- 
tary guidance and choice. Of this, at least, we 
feel sure. We work, walk, talk, play upon an 
instrument, read a book, or write a letter, be- 
cause we choose to do these things ; and ordinarily 
they are done under the full guidance of our will 
and intelligence. Sometimes, however, actions 
are performed by us without our choice or guid- 
ance, and even without our consciousness, and 
such actions are called automatic. The thrifty 
housewife, perhaps also being of a literary turn of 
mind, may become deeply absorbed in an exciting 
novel, while at the same time her busy fingers, 
without thought or effort on her part, skilfully 
ply the knitting needles, or her well accustomed 
foot, with gentle motion, rocks the cradle. 

During an exciting conversation, or the absorb- 



152 TELEPATHY AND THE SUBLIMINAL SELF. 

ing consideration of some important subject or 
problem, the act of walking is performed without 
will or consciousness ; the pianoforte player runs 
his scales and roulades with marvellous rapidity 
and precision while reading a book or carrying on 
an animated conversation. Such actions are per- 
formed automatically: 

When we come to examine a large number of 
actions performed in this automatic manner, we 
observe that they exhibit great diversity in the 
kind and degree of automatism displayed in their 
performance. In the cases above mentioned the 
mind is simply altogether engaged in doing one 
thing, and at the same time the muscles go on 
without any conscious direction or supervision, 
doing altogether another thing, but generally 
something which they had before been accustomed 
to do. This is often called absent-mindedness ; 
it is also one of the most common and simple 
forms of automatism. We set the machine to 
work, and it goes itself. 

Another kind of automatism is that which often 
appears in connection with peculiar gifts or talents, 
and is especially associated with genius. It is 
seen, for example, m the poet and the orator, 
and in those capable of improvisation, especially 
in music or in verse. The pianist or organist 



IMPROVISATION. 1^3 

seats himself at the instrument without the re- 
motest idea of what he is to perform — he simply 
commences. The theme he is to present, the 
various melodies, harmonies, changes, and mod- 
ulations which come at his touch are often as 
much a surprise and delight to himself as to the 
most interested listener. Something within him 
furnishes and formulates the ideas, and causes 
him to express them artistically upon the instru- 
ment of his choice without any effort, or even 
supervision of his own — he is simply conscious of 
what is produced — but if he should undertake 
consciously to guide or in any way interfere 
with the production, the extraordinary beauty 
and excellence of the performance would at once 
cease. 

Still another kind of automatism is illustrated 
in somnambulism. The somnambulist arises 
from his bed in his sleep, and proceeds to prepare 
a meal or work out a mathematical problem or 
write a thesis or a letter, or sometimes to de- 
scribe distant scenes and events transpiring far 
away. Here the actions, both physical and men- 
tal, are performed, not only without the exercise 
of the actor's own choice or control, but he has 
no knowledge of them whatever. They are 
altogether outside the domain of his conscious- 



154 TELEPATHY AND THE SUBLIMINAL SELF. 

ness, and have their origin in some centre of in- 
telligence quite apart from his own ordinary 
consciousness, and they only appear or find ex- 
pression through his physical organization. Let 
us examine a little more closely into these 
different forms of automatism. 

Twenty-five years ago a curious little piece of 
mechanism — apparently half toy and half an 
instrument for amateur conjuring — made its ap- 
pearance in the windows of the toyshops and 
bookstores of the United States. It was a little 
heart-shaped piece of mahogany, or other hard 
wood, about seven inches by five in dimensions, 
with two casters serving for feet at the base of 
the heart, while a closely-fitting pencil passed 
through a hole at the point or apex. 

Thus a tripod was formed, moving with perfect 
ease and freedom in any direction, while the 
pencil, which formed the third foot, left its 
plain and continuous tracing wherever the instru- 
ment was moved. 

This little toy was called Planchette, and won- 
derful tales were told of its strange performances 
when rightly used. Evenly adjusted upon a 
plain wood table, if a properly-constituted person 
placed his or her finger-tips lightly upon its sur- 
face, it soon began to move about, without any 



DOES NO T MO VE FOR E VER V ONE. 155 

muscular effort or any wish or will on the part of 
the operator; a broad, smooth sheet of paper 
being placed beneath it upon the table, figures, 
words, and sentences were plainly traced by the 
pencil, all in the style of a veritable oracle, and 
greatly to the delight of the curious, the wonder 
of the superstitious, and the mystification of peo- 
ple generally. 

Not eveiy one, however, could command the 
services of the modern oracle ; only to the touch 
of a certain few was it responsive ; to the many 
it was still and silent as a sphinx. One in ten, 
perhaps, could obtain a scrawl ; one in twenty, 
inteUigible sentences, and one in a hundred could 
produce remarkable results. Few persons wit- 
nessing its performances under favorable circum- 
stances failed to be interested, but different peo- 
ple looked at it from quite different standpoints. 
The habitual doubter saw in it only a well- 
managed trick, which, however, he failed to de- 
tect ; the spiritualist saw undoubted evidence of 
spiritual manifestations, while the great majority 
of common-sense people saw wTiting done, evi- 
dently without will or effort on the part of the 
writer, producing messages of every grade, from 
the most commonplace twaddle, foolishness, and 
even falsehood, to the exhibition of intelligence 



156 TELEPATHY AND THE SUBLIMINAL SELF. 

of a high order, a sparkling wit, and a perception 
of events, past, present, and sometimes even of 
those still in the future, most acute and unusual. 
What was the cause of these involuntary move- 
ments, or whence came the messages written, 
they did not know, and few even cared to spec- 
ulate. 

That was twenty-five years ago, and the two 
theories already alluded to were about the only 
ones adduced to account for the phenomena. 
Dr. Carpenter's theory of " unconscious cerebra- 
tion " and " unconscious muscular action *' did not 
cover the ground ; there was altogether too much 
cerebration not to have a consciousness connected 
with it in some way. The theory did not cover 
the facts. Twenty-five years have failed to de- 
tect the long-talked-of trick of the skeptic ; they 
have also failed to substantiate the claim of spirit- 
ualists, and Planchette-writing is almost as much 
a mystery as ever. 

Fairly studied, then, what does Planchette really 
do ? From a physical standpoint its performances 
are simply automatic writing or drawing. To 
deny the automatic character of the movements 
of Planchette at this day is simply absurd. That 
writing can be produced with it voluntarily, no 
one doubts, but that it generally is produced au- 



CLASSES OF PLANCHETTE MESSAGES. 157 

tomatically, that is, without the choice or control 
of the writers, and without their knowledge of 
what is being written, it would be waste of time 
here to attempt to prove ; the theory of fraud is 
untenable, and the real question at issue is the 
psychical one, namely, whence come the messages 
which it brings ? 

These messages may be divided into three gen- 
eral classes : (i) Those which are trivial or irrel- 
evant. (2) Those which show intelligence and 
have some unmistakable relation to the subject of 
which they purport to give information, but all 
of which is known either to the writers or some 
person present. (3) Those which bring, or profess 
to bring, information unknown in any way, either 
to the writer or any person present. 

The first of these divisions need not detain us, 
though it contains a very large share of all the 
messages received, as it simply illustrates the fact 
of automatism, which is equally well illustrated in 
the other classes of messages, which are of a more 
interesting character. The second class, namely, 
messages which show intelligence and have an 
unmistakable relation to the subject concerning 
which information is asked, and yet contain noth- 
ing beyond the knowledge of the writers or of 
persons present, is also very large. 



158 TELEPATHY AND THE SUBLIMINAL SELF. 

The following is a sketch of my own first 
experience with Planchette. I may remark that 
subsequent trials brought out the fact that for 
myself alone Planchette will do nothing ; it will 
not even move a hair's-breadth ; but when, as is 
often the case, two persons are needed for success, 
I am often selected by Planchette to assist when 
it is consulted in the matter. On one occasion, I 
was calling at a friend's house, in the spring of 
1868. Planchette was then much in vogue, and 
one stood on a side-table in the room. A young 
daughter of my friend — a school-girl fifteen or six- 
teen years of age — remarked that Planchette 
would move and sometimes even write for her, and 
she asked me to join her in a trial. I consented, 
and, to our surprise, the moment our fingers were 
placed lightly upon the instrument it moved off 
with great energy. Questions were then asked, 
and the answers were written with promptness 
and intelligence, greatly to the amusement of the 
company. Desiring to know who our mysterious 
correspondent might be, we politely said, '' Plan- 
chette, will you kindly inform us who it is that 
writes these answers ? " to which it repHed, '' Peter 
Stuyvesant." 

" Old Governor Stuyvesant ? " we asked. 

"Yes," was the reply. 



THE STUYVESANT PEAR TREE. 159 

Now it SO happened that a short time previous 
to our stance the old pear tree, known as the 
Stuyvesant pear tree, which had stood for more 
than two hundred years at the corner of Thirteenth 
Street and Third Avenue, having become decayed 
and tottering, was thrown down by a blow from 
a passing truck and had been ruthlessly chopped 
to pieces by workmen ; and the event had been 
generally noticed and commented upon. Accord- 
ingly we replied, 

** We are very glad to hear from you. Governor. 
How about the old pear tree ? " 

To this a reply was promptly written, but 
neither of us had the slightest idea what it might 
be. The young lady took up the paper and 
commenced to read, but was shocked and greatly 
confused to find, clearly written, in a hand quite 

foreign to us both, ** It's a shame ! " the 

blanks here being filled by the most emphatic ex- 
pletives, and without the slightest abbreviation. 

Another excellent Planchette-writer was Miss V., 
a friend of the family, who was spending a few days 
at my house in March, 1889. She was a young 
German lady of unusual intelligence, vivacity, 
and good sound sense. She knew of spiritualism 
only by passing remarks which she might have 
heard, and had never either seen or heard of Plan- 



i6o TELEPATHY AND THE SUBLIMINAL SELF. 

chette. She was herself a somnambulist, or, rather, 
a somniloquist, for she never walked in her sleep, 
but talked with the greatest ease, carrying on 
long conversations without the slightest memory 
afterwards of what had been said. She was also 
an excellent hypnotic subject, and the suggested 
effects of medicines were much m.ore prompt and 
certain than the effect of the medicines them- 
selves, when used in the ordinary way. 

For experiment one evening I proposed that 
we should try Planchette. As soon as our fin- 
gers were placed upon the instrument, it moved 
off across the table with the greatest promptness, 
and at once it replied to questions with unusual 
appropriateness and intelligence. The astonish- 
ment of Miss V. was altogether too profound and 
too apparent to admit of any suspicion of collu- 
sion on her part, and she had seen that the board 
would not move for me alone, yet she could not 
be persuaded that when we wrote together there 
was not some trick, and that I did not move the 
board voluntarily to produce the writing. 

At length a message came concerning one of 
her own relatives, of whom she was sure that I 
could have no knowledge whatever, and she was 
convinced that at all events that message could not 
have originated with me. Accordingly she became 



PL A NCHETTE- WRITING WITH MISS V. i6i 

a most valuable and interested partner in the ex- 
periments, and the chief medium through whom 
Planchette gave its communications. 

Our sittings continued four or five consecutive 
evenings, and hundreds of communications and 
answers to questions were given by different in- 
telligences or personalities, with entirely different 
modes of expression and different kinds of writ- 
ing ; some were religious, some philosophical, 
some were anxious to give advice, and some were 
profane ; this last-mentioned phase appearing 
especially if we were persistent in inquiring too 
closely into the identity and former condition of 
the communicating personality. 

On one occasion a message was written which 
was so strange in its appearance that none of us 
could at first make it out. At length we discov- 
ered some familiar negro phrase, and applying 
this key, we found we had a message of regular 
plantation negro talk, bearing a very strong re- 
semblance to Uncle Remus's talk to the little 
boy, which some of us had just been reading. 
On asking who the " intelligence " was, it wrote, 
" Oh, I'se a good ole coon." 

" Neither Miss V. nor myself had ever heard 
such a dialect spoken, nor knew that any sort of 
person of the negro race was ever called a " coon." 



1 62 TELEPATHY AND THE SUBLIMtNAL SELF. 

On another occasion, Miss V. was anxious to 
know and asked Planchette if a relative of hers, 
whom she named, was staying in town that 
night. The answer came, ** Yes." " Where is he 
stopping?" Answer: "At the H. House." 
** What is he doing now ? " Answer : " He has 
just finished his dinner, settled his bill at the 
cashier's desk, and is now walking up Broad- 
way with his cousin." She afterward learned 
that this information was correct in every partic- 
ular. 

On the last evening of our experiments the 
force displayed in the writing was something sur- 
prising. Miss V. always experienced a certain 
amount of pain in her arms while writing, as if 
she were holding the electrodes of a battery 
through which a mild current was passing. On 
this occasion the pain was almost unbearable, so 
that she frequently cried out, and was obliged to 
remove her hands from the board for relief. 

The writing was so violent that it could be heard 
in the next room, and at times it seemed as though 
the board would surely be broken. Seeing so 
much force exhibited, I allowed my fingers merely 
to touch the surface of the board, but so lightly 
that my hands did not move with it at all, but 
simply retained contact, the board sHding along 



EXPERIMENT REPEA TED. 1 63 

beneath them. The writing continued with just 
the same violence. I then called the attention of 
Miss V. to what I was doing, and requested her 
to adjust her hands in a similar manner. She did 
so, and the instrument continued to write several 
words, with gradually diminishing force, moving 
under our hands, while our hands did not follow 
at all the movements of the instrument, until at 
length it gradually stopped, like a machine when 
the power is turned off. 

Miss V. does not reside in the city, but while I 
was writing this chapter she was in town, and 
spent a few hours at my house. We were both 
anxious to try Planchette again. When we 
placed our fingers upon the board, the writing 
commenced at once, and intelligent answers were 
given to about twenty questions, some of the 
answers, especially those relating to distant friends, 
being quite contrary to our impressions and our 
hopes, but they were afterward found to be true. 

We remembered the experiment just related, 
which was made more than four years ago. The 
force on this occasion was not at all to be com- 
pared with what it was then, but we said, " Now, 
Planchette, we want to ask a favor of you ; will 
you repeat the experiment of four years ago, and 
move under our hands, while our hands remain 



164 TELEPATHY AND THE SUBIJ2>i::. AL SELP. 

stationary ? *' It replied, " Since you are so polite, 
I will try ; perhaps I can move it a little." 

We then planted our elbows firmly upon the 
table, curved our wrists, so as to allow the tips of 
our fingers to rest in the lightest possible manner 
upon the surface of the board. Four of us were 
watching with great interest for the result. After 
a moment's hesitation, slowly the board moved 
nearly an inch and stopped, but the movement 
was so obvious and decided, and without any 
movement of our hands, that a simultaneous sh : ut 
went up from us all, and "Well done, Plan- 
chette!" The experiment was successfully re- 
peated several times, the tracing of the pencil in 
each case showing a movement of from one to two 
inches. 

A most valuable series of experiments in Plan- 
chette-writing was recently carried on by the late 
Rev. Mr. Newnham, vicar of Maker, Davenport, 
England, a member of the Society for Psj^ch-cd 
Research, together with his wife. They ..ere 
fuUy reported to Mr. F. W. H. Myers, secretarr 
of the society. 

The experiments extended over a period of e^ht 
months, and more than three hundred questions 
and answers were recorded. Mrs. Newnham alone 
was the operator, and the important peculiarity in 



THE NE WNHA M EXPERIMEN TS. 165 

these experiments was, that although quite in her 
normal condition, yet in no instance here related 
did she see the question written to which she 
wrote the answer, nor did she hear it asked, nor 
did she have any conscious knowledge, either of 
question or answer, until the answer w^as written 
and read. She sat upon a low chair at a low 
table some eight or ten feet from her husband, 
while he sat at a rather high table, with his back 
to her. In this position he silently wrote out 
the questions, it being impossible for her to see 
either the paper, the motion of his hand, or the 
expression of his face, and their good faith, as 
well as that of many intelligent witnesses, is 
pledged to the truth of this statement. 

Mr. Newnham remarks that Planchette com- 
menced to move immediately upon the first trial, 
and often the answer to questions prepared as just 
described was commenced before the question 
was fully written out. 

At their first sitting, finding that the instrument 
would write, he proposed, silently, in writing, six 
questions, three the answers to which might be 
known to Mrs. Newnham, and three relating to 
his OAvn private affairs, and of which the answers 
could not have been known to her. All six were 
immediately answered in a manner denoting com- 



l66 TELEPA THY AND THE SUBLIMINAL SELF. 

plete intelligence, both of the question and the 
proper answer. He then wrote : " Write down the 
lowest temperature here this winter." Answer : 
" 8." The actual lowest temperature had been 'j'^ 
degrees, so 8 was the nearest whole degree, but Mrs. 
Newnham remarked at once that had she been 
asked the question she should have written 7, 
and not 8, because she did not remember the frac- 
tion, but did remember that the figure was 7 some- 
thing. 

Again it was asked, " Is it the operator's brain, 
or an immaterial spirit that moves Planchette? 
Answer * brain ' or ' force.' " 

" Will." 

** Is it the will of a living person or of an imma- 
terial spirit ? Answer ' force ' or * spirit.' " 

"Wife." 

" Give, first, the wife's Christian name, and 
then my favorite name for her." This was 
accurately done. 

" What is your own name? " 

*' Only wife." 

We are not quite sure of the meaning of your 
answer. Explain." 

" Wife." 

" Who are you that writes ? " 

<'Wife." 



A iV A UTOMA TIC PR A YER. 1 6 7 

" Does no one tell wife what to write ? If so, 
who ? " 

''Spirit." 

'' Whose spirit ? " 

"Wife's brain." 

'' But how does wife's brain know certain 
secrets ? " 

" Wife's spirit unconsciously guides." 

" Can you foresee the future ? " 

"No." 

On another occasion it was asked : " Write out 
the prayer used at the advancement of a Mark 
Master Mason." 

" Answer : Almighty Ruler of the Universe 
and Architect of all Worlds, we beseech Thee to 
accept this, our brother, whom we have this day 
received into our most honorable company of 
Mark Master Masons. Grant him to be a worthy 
member of our brotherhood, and may he be in 
his own person a perfect mirror of all Masonic 
virtues. Grant that all our doings may be to 
Thy honor and glory and to the welfare of all 
mankind." 

Mr. Newnham adds : " This prayer was written 
off instantaneously and very rapidly. I must 
say that no prayer in the slightest degree resem- 
bling it is made use of in the ritual of any Masonic 



1 68 TELE PA THY AND THE SUBLIMINAL SELF. 

degree, and yet it contains more than one strictly 
accurate technicality connected with the degree of 
Mark Master Mason. My wife has never seen 
any Masonic prayers, whether in ' Carlile,' or any 
other real or spurious ritual of the Masonic 
Order.'* 

The whole report shows the same instantaneous 
appreciation of the written questions, by the in- 
telligence and appropriateness with which the 
answer was framed, though Mrs. Newnham never 
had any idea what the question was until after 
the answer was written and read, and the answers 
very often were entirely contrary to the preju- 
dices and expectations of both the persons 
engaged in the experiments. 

The following case may fairly be placed in the 
third class of messages, namely, those conveying 
intelligence which seems to be beyond the pos- 
sible knowledge of the writer or of any person 
present. It is a well authenticated and interest- 
ing example of Planchette-writing, reported to 
Mr. Myers, the reporter being Mr. Hensleigh 
Wedgwood, a cousin and brother-in-law of Charles 
Darwin, and himself a savant of no small reputa- 
tion. Two ladies, sisters, whom he designates as 
Mrs. R. and Mrs. V., were for many years inti- 
mate and valued friends of Mr. Wedgwood, and 



MR. WEDGWOOD'S EXPERIMENTS. 169 

it was in co-operation with one or the other of 
these ladies that the results to be noted, along 
with much other interesting matter, were 
obtained. 

Sitting alone, neither of the ladies nor Mr. 
Wedgwood was able to obtain any results at all 
with Planchette ; the board remained absolutely- 
motionless. The two ladies together could 
obtain no writing, but only wavy lines, made 
rapidly, like a person writing at full speed, but 
with Mr. Wedgwood co-operating with either of 
the ladies the writing was intelligible, but was 
much stronger and more vivacious with Mrs. V. 
than with Mrs. R. The following extracts are 
from Mrs. R.'s journal of a sitting, June 26, 
1889: 

''With Mr. W. and Mrs. R. at the board, Plan- 
chette writes: 'A spirit is here who thinks he 
will be able to write, through the medium. Hold 
very steady, and he will try first to draw.' We 
turned the page, and a sketch was made, rudely 
enough, of course, but with much apparent care. 
Planchette then wrote : 

« <■ Very sorry can't do better ; was meant for 
test ; must write for you instead. (Signed) J. G.' 

" We did not fully understand this drawing; and 
Mr. W. asked, * Will J. G. try again ? ' which it 



170 TELEPATHY AND THE SUBLIMINAL SELF. 

did. Below the drawing it wrote : '■ Now look/ 
We did, and this time clearly comprehended the 
arm and sword. Mr. W. asked, 'What does 
the drawing represent ? * 

" ' Something given to nie.' 

'' Mrs. R. asked, ' Are you a man or a woman ? ' 

"'A man— John G.' 

** Mr. W. asked, * How was it given to you ? ' 

" *0n paper and other things.' 

" Mr. W. ' We don't know J. G. Have you 
anything to do with us ? ' 

" * No connection.' 

" Mr. W. said he knew of a J. Gifford, and 
wondered if that was the name. 

" ' Not Gifford ; Gurwood.' 

" Mr. W. suggested that he had been killed in 
storming some fort. 

" ' I wish I had died fighting.' 

" * Were you a soldier ? ' 

" * I was in the army.' 

" * Can you say what rank ? ' 

" ' No ; it was the pen did for me, not the sword.' 

"We suggested that he was an author who had 
failed or been maligned. 

"■ '■ I did not fail. I was not slandered. Too 
much for me after — the pen was too much for me 
after my wound.' 



JOHN GUR WOOD'S CREST. 171 

" Asked to repeat, it wrote : ' I was wounded in 
the Peninsula. It will be forty-four years next 
Christmas Day since I killed myself — I killed my- 
self. John Gurwood.* " 

Leaving Mrs. R.'s diary, the following is the 
account Mr. Wedgwood wrote of the stance at 
the time : — 

"June 26, 1889. — Had a sitting at Planchette 
with Mrs. R. this morning. Planchette said there 




was a spirit there who thought it could draw if 
we wished it. We said we should be glad if he 
would try. Accordingly Planchette made a rude 
attempt at a hand and arm proceeding from an 
embattled wall and holding a sword. A second 
attempt made the subject clearer. Planchette 
said it was meant for a test. The spirit signed 
it 'J. G.' No connection of ours, he said. We 
gradually elicited that his name was John Gur- 



172 TELEPATHY AND THE SUBLIMINAL SELF. 

wood, who was wounded in the Peninsula in 1810, 
and killed himself on Christmas Day, 1845. It 
was not the wound but the pen that did it. 

"July 5, 1889. — I made the foregoing memoran- 
dum the same day, having very little expectation 
that there would be any verification. 

''H. Wedgwood." 

Quoting again from Mrs. R.'s journal: "Friday, 
Sept. 27. — Mr. Wedgwood came, and we had two 
sittings — in the afternoon and evening. I think 
the same spirit wrote throughout, beginning with- 
out signature, but when asked the name, writing 
John Gurwood. The effort, at first incoherent, 
developed afterward into the following sentences : 
* Sword — when I broke in, on the table with plan 
of fortress — belonged to my prisoner — I will tell 
you his name to-night. It was on the table when 
I broke in. He did not expect me. I took him 
unawares. He was in his room, looking at apian, 
and the sword was on the table. Will try and let 
you know how I took the sword to-night.' 

" In the evening, after dinner : ' I fought my 
way in. His name was Banier — Banier — Banier. 
The sword was lying on a table by a written 
scheme of defence. Oh, my head ! Banier had 
a plan written out for defence of the fortress. It 
was lyin^ on the table, and his sword was by it. 



VERIFICA TION OF PL A NCHE TTE. 1 7 3 

. . . Look ! I have tried to tell you what you 
can verify/ " 

Mr. Wedgwood reports his verification as 
follows : — 

"When I came to verify the messages of Plan- 
chette, I speedily found that Col. Gurwood, the 
editor of the duke's dispatches, led the forlorn 
hope at the storming of Ciudad Rodrigo in 1812 
(note Planchette's error in date), and received a 
wound in his skull from a musket-ball, ' which 
affected him for the remainder of his life,' {An- 
nual Register^ i845)- ^^ recognition of the brav- 
ery shown on that occasion, he received a grant 
of arms in 18 12, registered in the College of Arms 
as having been passed * upon the narrative that he 
(Capt. G.) had led the forlorn hope at Ciudad 
Rodrigo, and that after the storming of the fortress 
the Duke of Wellington presented him with the 
sword of the governor who had been taken 
prisoner by Capt. Gurwood.' '* 

The services thus specified were symbolized in 
the crest, described in the " Book of Family 
Crests '* : ** Out of a mural coronet, a castle 
ruined in the centre, and therefrom an arm in 
armor embowed, holding a cimeter." 

It was evidently this crest that Planchette was 
trying to sketch. The Annual Register of 1845 



174 TELEPATHY AND THE SUBLIMINAL SELF. 

also confirms Planchette's assertion that Col. Gur- 
wood killed himself on Christmas Day of that 
year, and adds : " It is thought that this laborious 
undertaking (editing the dispatches) produced a 
relaxation of the nervous system and consequent 
depression of spirits. In a fit of despondency the 
unfortunate gentleman terminated his life." Com- 
pare Planchette : " Pen was too much for me after 
the wound," 

Here are described four instances of automatic 
writing by means of Planchette. Two of these 
cases were reported to Mr. Myers, who has thor- 
oughly canvassed them as regards their authen- 
ticity, as well as the ability and good faith of the 
persons concerned, both in the writing and report- 
ing ; and he has made use of them in his own able 
argument upon the same subject. 

In the other cases the messages were written 
under my own observation, my own hands also 
being upon the board. In the case of Mr. and 
Mrs. Newnham the intelligence which furnished 
the messages disclaimed altogether the aid of any 
spirit except "wife's spirit," which did " uncon- 
sciously guide." In the case reported by Mr. 
Wedg\vood and Mrs. R., the intelligence distinctly 
claimed to be from Col. John Gurwood, who had 
died nearly fifty years before. In my own cases, 



MESS A GES ANAL YZED. 175 

in that written with the co-operation of my friend's 
school-girl daughter, the intelligence claimed to be 
that of Peter Stuyvesant, while in those written 
with Miss v., various names were given, none of 
which was recognized as belonging to a person of 
whom we had ever had any knowledge, and all 
bore abundant evidence of being fictitious. One, 
indeed, professed to be " Beecher," and declined 
to give an opinion on the prospective trotting 
qualities of a colt, on the ground that he was *' no 
horseman " ; and in our later experiments, when 
closely questioned, it distinctly stated that the 
intelligence came from the mind of Miss V. 
herself. 

Let us analyze these messages a little further. 
Those written by Mr. and Mrs. Newnham were 
remarkable, not only because Mrs. Newnham was 
writing without any conscious knowledge of what 
was being written, but neither had she any 
conscious knowledge of the questions to which she 
was writing the answers. Evidently, then, her own 
ordinary consciousness was not acting at all in the 
matter regarding either the questions or answers, 
for she was fully awake, in her normal condition, 
and perfectly competent to judge of her own 
mental state and actions. Nevertheless, there was 
some intelligence acting reasonably and con- 



176 TELEPATHY AND THE SUBLIMINAL SELF. 

sciously, and making use of her hand to register 
its thoughts. 

In a former chapter I have described and illus- 
trated a somewhat unusual mental phenomenon, 
to which the name thought-transference, or telep- 
athy, has been given ; and in another I have 
endeavored to demonstrate the existence of a 
secondary or subliminal self or personality. 

If I mistake not, it is here, in these two com- 
paratively little known and, until recently, little 
studied, psychical conditions, that we shall find 
the key to message-bearing automatism, as well 
as other manifestations of intelligence which 
have heretofore been considered mysterious and 
occult. Applying this key to the Newnham 
Planchette-writing, the secondary personality or 
subliminal self of Mrs. Newnham took imme- 
diate cognizance of the questions silently and 
secretly written out by her husband, although 
they were utterly unknown to her ordinan,^ or 
primary self, and made use of her hands to com- 
municate the answer. 

The answer, also, was of course unknown to 
her primary self, but her subliminal self, in addi- 
tion to its own private and constant stock of 
knowledge and opinions, had the advantage of 
more subtle means of securing other knovdedge 



so UR CES OF IN FORMA TION. 1 7 7 

necessary for a proper answer, and so sought it 
in her husband's mind, or wherever it could be 
obtained. The sources of information accessible 
to the subliminal self, through means analogous 
to those which have been named — thought-trans- 
ference and telepathy — are certainly various, and 
their limit is not yet known. We may mention, 
however, In this connection, besides the mind of 
the automatic writer — the mind of the questioner, 
and also the minds of other persons present, in 
any or all of which may be stored up knowledge 
or impressions of which the ordinary conscious- 
ness or memory retains no trace ; it may be a 
scene witnessed in childhood ; a newspaper par- 
agraph read many years ago ; a casual remark 
overheard, but not even noticed — all these and 
many more are sources of information upon which 
the subliminal self may draw for answers, which, 
when written out by the automatist, seem abso- 
lutely marvellous, not to say miraculous or super- 
natural. 

Thus, the prayer at the ceremony of the ad- 
vancement of a Mark Master Mason, although 
language entirely unfamiliar to Mrs. Newnham, 
was perfectly familiar to her husband, who was 
himself a Mason, and, I believe, a chaplain in the 

order ; and while the form was not one actually 
12 



178 TELEPATHY AXD THE SUB LIMEVAL SELF. 

used, it contained strictly accurate technicalities, 
and would have been perfectly appropriate to such 
an occasion. 

The messages written by -Mr. Wedgwood and 
Mrs. R. profess to come directly from the spirit 
of Colonel Gurwood ; but without absolutely dis- 
carding that theory, having the key to which I 
have referred, let us see if such a supposition is 
necessary to explain the facts. 

It may be conceded at once that neither Mr. 
Wedgwood nor either of the ladies with whom he 
wrote had any conscious knowledge of Col. Gur- 
wood — his military career, or his sad taking off ; 
but they were all intelligent people. John Gur- 
wood, as it turned out, was a noted man ; he was 
an officer in the Peninsular War, under the Duke 
of Wellington, performed an act of special bravery 
and daring, in the performance of which he was 
severely wounded, and for which he was after- 
ward granted a coat of arms. He was also after- 
ward chosen to edit the duke's dispatches. All 
this was recorded in the Aimual Register for 
1845, soon after Gurwood's death, together with 
a description in the language of heraldry of the 
crest or coat of arms which had been granted him 
many years before. 

It is scarcely possible that such an event would 



OPEN TO SUBLIMINAL SELF. 179 

not have been noticed in the newspapers at the 
time of Gurwood's death, and nothing is more 
probable than that some of these intelligent per- 
sons had read these accounts, or as children heard 
them read or referred to, though they may now 
have been entirely absent from their ordinary- 
consciousness and memory. At all events, the 
subliminal self or secondary consciousness of 
Mrs. R., whom Planchette designates as " the 
medium," or of Mr. Wedgwood, may have come 
into relationship with the sources of information 
necessary to furnish the messages which it com- 
municated, and these sources may have been the 
knowledge or impressions unconsciously received 
many years before by some of those present, the 
generally diffused knowledge of these facts which 
doubtless prevailed in the community at the 
time of Gurwood's death, and the full printed ac- 
counts of these events, many copies of which 
were extant. 

From the description of Gurwood's coat of arms 
the idea could easily have been obtained which 
Planchette rudely represented in drawing, con- 
stituting what is called a test, and also the other 
knowledge concerning his military career and 
death which appeared in the various messages. 

Regarding cases coming under my own obser- 



l8o TELEPA THY AND THE SUBLIMINAL SELF. 

vation, the incident relating to Peter Stuy vesant's 
pear tree was well known to us both, and had only 
recently been a matter of general conversation, 
and all of those present had a more or less dis- 
tinct idea of Peter Stuyvesant himself, derived 
from Irving's " Knickerbocker's History of New 
York." 

Of the cases observed with Miss V., as before 
stated, nearly all the names given of '* authorities,** 
as we called them, were evidently fictitious, 
scarcely one being recognized, and none were of 
persons with whom we had any connection, and 
some did not claim any other origin than our 
subliminal consciousness, as was also the case with 
messages written by Mrs. Newnham. 

If, then, some of the messages are surely the 
work of the subliminal self of the writer, aided by 
its more acute and more far-reaching perceptions, 
and if nearly all may be accounted for in the 
same way, the probability that all such messages 
have the same origin is greatly increased, and in 
the same degree the necessity for the spiritualistic 
theory is diminished, since it is evident that of 
two theories for explaining a new fact we should 
accept that one which better harmonizes with 
facts already established. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

AUTOMATIC WRITING, DR.UYIXG AND PAINTING. 

The subject of Automatism has thus far been 
illustrated by reference to Planchette-writing 
alone. It was selected because it is the kind most 
frequently seen and most easily proved by ex- 
periment. The little instrument Planchette, how- 
ever, is not essential ; it is used because, being 
placed on casters, it is more easily moved. 

The Chinese, long ago, used for the same pur- 
pose a little basket, with style attached, placed 
upon two even chopsticks. 

The same results also occur with some persons 
when the pencil is simply held in the usual man- 
ner for writing. The hand then being allowed to 
remain perfectly passive, automatic movements 
first take place — the hand moving round and 
round or across the paper, and then follows writ- 
ing or drawing, as the case may be. Some per- 
sons produce written messages vsxniirr or writing 

— that is, reversed — or so written that it can only 

i8i 



l82 TELEPATHY AND THE SUBLIMINAL SELF. 

be easily read by causing it to be reflected in a 
mirror. This kind of writing is sometimes pro- 
duced on the first attempt of the experimenter, 
and even by young children without any experi- 
ence or knowledge of the subject. 

As previously shown, different strata of con- 
sciousness may, and in some well observed cases, 
most certainly do, exist in the same individual. 
In these well observed cases, each separate con- 
sciousness had its own distinct chain of memories 
and its own characteristics and peculiarities ; and 
these distinct chains of memories and well defined 
characteristics constitute, so far as we can judge, 
distinct personalities. At all events, they are 
centres of intelligence and mental activity which 
are altogether independent of the ordinary, every- 
day consciousness or personality, and often alto- 
gether superior to it. Accordingly this other 
centre of intelligence and mental activity has 
been named the second personality or subliminal 
self ; that is, a consciousness or self or personality 
beneath the threshold, so to speak, of the ordi- 
nary or primary self. 

Ansel Bourne and A. J, Brown were separate 
and distinct personalities, having entirely distinct, 
and apparently unrelated, chains of memory, dis- 
tinct characteristics, opinions, and peculiarities, 



PERSONALITIES ACT INDEPENDENTL Y. 1 83 

acting at different times through the same 
body. 

Ansel Bourne was the usual or primary person- 
ality ; A. J. Brown was a second personality, a 
separate focus of intelligence and mental activity, 
a subliminal self. What the exact relationship 
existing between these two personalities may be 
we do not attempt at present to explain ; but 
that they exist and act independent of each 
other we know. In other instances, as, for ex- 
ample, that of Madame B., the hypnotic sub- 
ject of Prof. Janet of Havre, and also that of 
Alma Z., we have been able to observe these 
separate centres of intelligence, these distinct 
personalities, both in action at the same time, 
upon altogether separate and unrelated subjects. 
Sometimes the subliminal self takes full control, 
making itself the active ruling personality to the 
entire exclusion of the primary self ; and some- 
times it only sends messages to the primary or 
ordinary self, by suggestion, mental pictures, or 
vivid impressions made upon the organs of sense 
and producing the sensation of seeing, hearing, or 
touch. 

To illustrate these different methods of com- 
munication between the ordinary and subliminal 
self, suppose an individual, whom we will desig- 



l84 TELEPATHY AND THE SUBLIMINAL SELF, 

nate as X., manifests this peculiar condition of 
double consciousness. As we have seen, the sub- 
liminal self often takes cognizance of things con- 
cerning which the ordinary self is entirely igno- 
rant, but it may not always have the power to 
impress the primary self with this knowledge, nor 
to take full possession, so as to be able to impart 
it to others by speaking or writing. This is the 
usual condition of most persons ; with some 
peculiarly constituted persons, however, the pos- 
sibility of being so impressed surely exists, 
and with them these impressions are direct and 
vivid. 

Our individual, X., is one in whom this ability 
to receive impressions in this manner exists. 

To illustrate : Suppose first that X. is asleep, 
is taking his after-dinner nap, and that children 
playing in his grounds have set fire to some straw 
in close proximity to buildings near by. No one 
notices the danger. X. is asleep, but his subli- 
minal self is on the alert — like the second self of 
the somnambulist or subject in the hypnotic 
trance — it sees that unless checked there will be 
a destructive conflagration. It impresses upon 
X, a dream of fire so vivid that he wakes in 
alarm, discovers the mischief and averts the 
danger. Or suppose X. to be awake and sitting 



DIFFERENT FORMS OF A UTOMA TISM. 185 

in his office in a distant part of the house, quite 
unconscious of anything unusual. All at once he 
becomes restless, unable to pursue his work ; he 
is impelled to leave his desk, to go out, to walk in 
the direction of the fire, and thus become aware of 
the danger. Or again, that X. is an automatic 
writer — that paper and pencil are at hand and he 
receives a sudden impulse to write. He has no 
knowledge of what he is writing, but upon ex- 
amination he finds it a warning to look after the 
threatening fire ; or still again, that he hears a 
voice distinctly saying, ^' Look out for fire ; " or 
sees a distinct picture of the place and circum- 
stances of the fire ; all these are possible methods 
by which the subliminal self might communicate to 
X., the ordinary personality, the danger which 
was threatening. 

Automatism, therefore, does not necessarily 
take the form of written messages, but may take 
any form by which the subliminal self can best 
transmit its message to the primary self — or in 
the same way from one person to another, whether 
by words written or spoken automatically — by 
voices heard, by action influenced, as when X. is 
influenced to leave his office and walk, or the 
mischievous Leontine unties the apron of L^onie, 
or by vision or vivid mental picture, as when Peter 



l86 TELEPA THY AND. THE SUBLIMINAL SELF, 

sees a "sheet let down by the four corners," from 
which he learns an important lesson. 

The messages received automatically may not 
all be true ; they may be trivial and even false ; 
on the other hand, they may not only be true and 
important but they may convey information quite 
out of the power of the primary self to acquire by 
■any ordinary use of the senses. Nor need we be 
greatly surprised at this ; it is a normal function 
of the subliminal self ; with sorne persons that 
function is active, with others it is dormant, but 
in all, at some moment in life, circumstances 
may arise which shall awaken that function into 
activity. 

A remarkable example of messages received by 
automatic writing is that furnished by Mr. W. T. 
Stead, occurring in his own experience. Mr. 
Stead is a well-known author, journalist, and 
the editor of the London edition of the Review of 
Reviews f in which magazine his experiences have, 
on various occasions, been published. 

As he regards the matter, there is an invisible 
intelligence which controls his hand, but the per- 
sons with whom he is in communication are alive 
and visible — for instance his own son on various oc- 
casions, also persons in his employ, writers upon his 
magazine, casual acquaintances, and even strangers. 



MR. STEAD'S A UTOMA TIC WRITING. 187 

None of these persons participate in any active 
or conscious way in the communications. Mr. 
F. W. H. Myers has often conversed with Mr. 
Stead and with several of his involuntary corre- 
spondents in relation to the phenomena, and the 
facts are so simple and open, and the persons 
connected with them so intelligent and evidently 
sincere and truthful, that no doubt can be enter- 
tained as to the reality of the incidents, however 
they may be interpreted. 

One of the most remarkable of these involun- 
tary correspondents is known as Miss A., a lady 
employed by him in literary work of an important 
character. She testifies in regard to the matter : 
" I, the subject of Mr. Stead's automatic writing, 
known as * A.,' testify to the correctness of the 
statements made in this report. I would like to 
add what I think more wonderful than many 
things Mr. Stead has cited, namely, the correct- 
ness with which, on several occasions, he has given 
the names of persons whom he has never seen nor 
heard of before. I remember on one occasion 
a person calling upon me with a very uncommon 
name. The next day I saw Mr. Stead and he 
read to me what his hand had written of the visit 
of that person, giving the name absolutely cor- 
rectly. Mr. Stead has never seen that person, 



i88 TELEPATHY AND THE SUBLIMINAL SELF. 

and until then had no knowledge of his exist- 
ence." 

The following is a description of a journey made 
by Miss A., automatically written by Mr. Stead, 
he at the time not having the slightest knowledge 
where she was, what she was doing, or that she 
intended making any such journey. The slight 
inaccuracies are noted : — 

" I went to the Waterloo station by the twelve 
o'clock train, and got to Hampton Court about 
one. When we got out we went to a hotel and 
had dinner. It cost nearly three shillings. After 
dinner I went to the picture-galleries. I was 
very much pleased with the paintings of many of 
the ceilings. I was interested in most of the 
portraits of Lely. After seeing the galleries I 
went into the grounds. How beautiful they are • 
I saw a great vine, that lovely English garden' 
the avenue of elms, the canal, the great water 
sheet, the three views, the fountain, the gold 
fishes, and then lost myself in the maze. I got 
home about nine o'clock. It cost me altogether 
about six shillings." On communicating this to 
Miss A. she found that everything was correct 
with two exceptions. She went down by the 
two o'clock train instead of the twelve, and got to 
Hampton Court about three. The dinner cost 



A STRANGER'S NEEDS INDICATED. 189 

her two and elevenpence, which was nearly three 
shillings, and the total was six and threepence. 
The places were visited in the order mentioned. 

A second instance was where the needs of a 
comparative stranger were written out by Mr. 
Stead's hand. Mr. Stead goes on to say : " Last 
February I met a correspondent in a railway car- 
riage with whom I had a very casual acquaint- 
ance. Knowing that he was in considerable dis- 
tress, our conversation fell into a more or less 
confidential train in which I divined that his diffi- 
culty was chiefly financial. I said I did not know 
whether I could be of any help to him, but asked 
him to let me know exactly how things stood — 
what were his debts, his expectations, and so 
forth. He said he really could not tell me, and I 
refrained from pressing him. 

" That night I received a letter from him 
apologizing for not having given the information. 
but saying he really could not. I received that 
letter about ten o'clock, and about two o'clock 
next morning, before going to sleep, I sat down 
in my bedroom and said: 'You did not like to 
tell me your exact financial condition face to face, 
but now you can do so through my hand. Just 
write and tell me exactly how things stand. 
How much money do you owe ? * My hand wrote. 



190 TELE PA THY AND THE SUBLIMINAL SELF. 

* My debts are ^90.' In answer to a further in- 
quiry whether the figures were accurately stated, 
' ninety pounds * was then written in full. * Is 
that all ? ' I asked. My hand wrote ' Yes, and 
how I am to pay I do not know.' * Well,' I said ; 
' how much do you want for that piece of prop- 
erty you wish to sell ? ' My hand wrote, * What 
I hope is, say, ;^ioo for that. It seems a great 
deal, but I must get money somehow. Oh, if I 
could get anything to do — I would gladly do any- 
thing ! ' 'What does it cost you to live?' I 
asked. My hand wrote, * I do not think I could 
possibly live under ;^200 a year. If I were alone 
I could live on £^0 per annum.' 

'' The next day I made a point of seeking my 
friend. He said : ' I hope you were not offended 
at my refusing to tell you my circumstances, but 
really I do not think it would be right to trouble 
you with them.' I said : ' I am not offended in 
the least, and I hope you will not be offended 
when I tell you what I have done.' I then ex- 
plained this automatic, telepathic method of com- 
munication. I said : ' I do not know whether 
there is a word of truth in what my hand has 
written. I hesitate at telling you, for I confess I 
think the sum which was written as the amount 
of your debts cannot be correctly stated ; it seems 



THE INDICATIONS CORROBORATJED, 191 

to me much too small, considering the distress in 
which you seemed to be ; therefore I will read 
you that first, and if that is right I will read you 
the rest ; but if it is wrong I will consider it is 
rubbish and that your mind in no way influenced 
my hand.* He was interested but incredulous. 
But, I said, * Before I read you anything will 
you form a definite idea in your mind as to how 
much your debts amount to ; secondly, as to the 
amount of money you hope to get for that prop- 
erty ; thirdly, what it costs you to keep up your 
establishment with your relatives ; and fourthly, 
what you could live upon if you were by your- 
self ? * * Yes,' he said, * I have thought of all 
those things.' I then read out. *The amount 
of your debts is about £go.' He started. * Yes,' 
he said, * that is right.' Then I said: * As that is 
right I will read the rest. You hope to get ^100 
for your property.' ' Yes,' he said, * that was the 
figure that was in my mind, though I hesitated 
to mention it for it seems too much.' 'You say 
you cannot live upon less than ;^200 a year with 
your present establishment.' * Yes,' he said, 
' that is exactly right.' ' But if you were by your- 
self you could live on ^50 a year.' '■ Well,' said 
he, ' a pound a week was what I had fixed in my 
mind.' Therefore there had been a perfectly 



192 TELEPATHY AND THE SUBLIMINAL SELF. 

accurate transcription of the thoughts in the 
mind of a comparative stranger written out with 
my own hand at a time when we were at a dis- 
tance of some miles apart, within a few hours of 
the time when he had written apologizing for not 
having given me the information for which I had 
asked." 

In the following case the correspondent is a 
foreign lady, doing some work for the Review, 
but whom Mr. Stead had only met once in his 
life. On the occasion now referred to he was to 
meet her at Redcar Station at about three o'clock 
in the afternoon. He was stopping at a house 
ten minutes' walk from the station, and it occurred 
to him that " about three o'clock," as mentioned 
in her letter, might mean before three ; and it 
was now only twenty minutes of three. No time- 
table was at hand : he simply asked her to use 
his hand to tell him what time the train was due. 
This was done without ever having had any com- 
munication with her upon the subject of automatic 
writing. She (by Mr. Stead's hand) immediately 
wrote her name, and said the train was due at 
Redcar Station at ten minutes of three. Accord- 
ingly he had to leave at once — but before starting 
he said, " Where are you at this moment? " The 
answer came, " I am in the train at Middlesborough 



COMMUNICATING WITH A TRAVELLER. 193 

railway station, on my way from Hartpool to 
Redcar." 

On arriving at the station he consulted the time- 
table and found the train was due at 2 : 52. The 
train, however, was late. At three o'clock it had 
not arrived ; at five minutes past three, getting 
uneasy at the delay, he took paper and pencil 
in his hand and asked where she was. 

Her name was at once written and there was 
added : " I am in the train rounding the curve 
before you come to Redcar Station — I will be 
with you in a minute." 

" Why the mischief have you been so late? " he 
mentally asked. His hand wrote, "We were 
detained at Middlesborough so long — I don't 
know why." 

He put the paper in his pocket and walked to 
the end of the platform just as the train came 
in. 

He immediately went to his friend and ex- 
claimed : — " How late you are ! What on earth 
has been the matter?" To which she replied: 
" I do not know ; the train stopped so long at 
Middlesborough — it seemed as if it never would 
start." 

This narrative was fully corroborated by the 

lady who was the passenger referred to. 
13 



194 TELEPATHY AND THE SUBLIMINAL SELF. 

In all these cases it should be noticed the so- 
called correspondent took no active part in the 
experiment, was not conscious of communicating 
anything, nor of trying to do so ; nor is there any 
evidence of a third party or any intervening in- 
telligence or personality ; but the subliminal self 
of the writer went forth and acquired the needed 
information and transferred it automatically to the 
primary self, as was the case in the Planchette- 
writing of Mrs. Newnham and the Wedgwood 
cases. 

During the years 1874 and 1875 I had under 
my care Mrs. Juliette T. Burton, the wife of a 
physician who came to New York from the South 
at the close of the war. She was a woman of 
refinement, education, and excellent literary 
ability. She wrote with unusual facility, and her 
articles were accepted by newspapers and mag- 
azines, and brought her a considerable income. 
I knew her well, and her honesty, good faith, 
and strong common-sense were conspicuous. She 
died of phthisis in 1875. It is to her varied auto- 
matic powers as illustrating our subject that I 
would call attention. 

Many of her best articles were prepared with- 
out conscious effort of her own, either physical or 
mental ; she simply prepared pencils and paper, 



A UTOMA TIC DRA WING A ND PA INTING. 1 9 5 

became passive, and her hand wrote. Sometimes 
she had a plan to write up a certain subject, and 
sometimes the subject as well as the matter came 
automatically. 

She knew that she was writing, but of what 
was written she had no knowledge until she read 
her own manuscript. 

She had no talent for drawing nor for painting ; 
she could not, in her ordinary condition, draw a 
face, nor even a leaf, which could be recognized. 
Soon after coming to New York she began to see 
faces and other pictures before her on the blank 
paper and to sketch them with marvellous rapidity 
and exactness, all in the same automatic manner 
as that in which she did her writing. These 
drawings were not crude, but were strongly char- 
acteristic and were delicately done with ordinary 
lead pencils, several of which were prepared before- 
hand with sharp delicate points. I remember one 
drawing in particular — a man's head about half 
life-size, with full flowing beard. At first glance 
there was nothing peculiar about the picture, 
except that one would say that it was a strong 
and characteristic face ; but on close examina- 
tion in a strong light, and especially through a 
reading-glass, the beard was seen to be made up 
entirely of exceedingly minute faces of sheep ; 



196 TELEPA THY AND THE SUBLlMmAL SELF, 

every face was perfectly formed and characteristic, 
and there were thousands of them. It was done 
with the same wonderful rapidity which charac- 
terized all her automatic work. 

Later she was impelled to procure colors, 
brushes, and all the materials for painting in oil ; 
and although she had never even seen that kind 
of work done, and had not the slightest idea how 
to mix the colors to produce desired tints, nor 
how to apply them to produce desired effects, yet 
at a single sitting in a darkened room she pro- 
duced a head of singular strength and character 
and possessing at least some artistic merit. Cer- 
tainly no one could imagine it to be the first at- 
tempt of a person entirely without natural talent 
for either drawing or painting. It was done on 
common brown cardboard, and it has been in my 
possession for the past twenty-two years. The 
reproduction which appears as frontispiece to the 
present volume gives some idea of its character. 

The impression received by the painter was 
that it was the portrait of an Englishman named 
Nathan Early.* No date was assigned. 

As a further illustration of her automatic power, 
it may be mentioned that another uncultivated 
faculty developed itself, namely, the power of 

* See Frontispiece. 



PSYCHOMETRIC POWER. 197 

referring to past events in the lives of those who 
were in her presence. The knowledge of past 
events so conveyed was frequently most remark- 
able and was circumstantially correct, even rival- 
ling in this respect the reports which we have of 
Jung-Stilling and Zschokke. 



I 



CHAPTER IX. 

CRYSTAL-GAZING. 

Automatic messages fall naturally into two 
general classes : (i) Motor messages, or those re- 
ceived by means of writing, speaking, drawing, or 
some activity of the body , and (2) sensory mes- 
sages, or those received passively by means of an 
impression made upon some of the senses, as, for 
example, seeing, hearing, or feeling. 

The motor messages spelt out by raps and 
table-tipping, and the performances of trance- 
speakers and spiritualistic mediums need not de- 
tain us at present , so far as the message's them- 
selves are concerned they offer no new elements 
for consideration. The utterances of trance- 
speakers as a rule are not rich m verifiable facts, 
though some of their performances are truly re- 
markable as presenting a phase of improvisation 
automatically given ; and the same may be said 
of mediumistic utterances generally* they have 

the same value as automatic writing, whether pro- 
198 



OTHER METHODS OF AUTOMATISM. 199 

duced by Planchette, or passively holding the 
pencil in the hand ; and so far as they are honest 
they probably have the same origin, namely, the 
secondary consciousness or subliminal self of the 
medium. As regards the force which makes the 
raps or tips the table, it Is altogether a different 
subject and its consideration here would be un- 
necessary and out of place. 

I hasten to present cases of automatism where 
the messages brought are given by other means 
than writing, speaking, or any movement or 
activity of the body, but which belong to the 
sensory class, and are received by impressions 
made upon the senses. Of these the most com- 
mon are those made upon the sense of sight. 

To this class belong visions, dreams, distinct 
mental pictures presented under widely varying 
circumstances and conditions, in trance, in the 
hypnotic condition, in sleep, or directly conveyed 
to the primary conscious self. To simply think 
how a person, a building, or a landscape looks is 
one thing, but to have a full mental picture, pos- 
sessing dimensions, and a stability which admits 
of being closely examined in detail, is quite another 
thing. 

A little girl of my acquaintance, on returning 
from the country after several weeks of absence 



200 TELEPATHY AND THE SUBLIMINAL SELF. 

from her father, said to him, — " Why, papa, I could 
have you with me whenever I Hked, this summer, 
though it was only your head and shoulders that 
I could see ; but I could place you where I liked 
and could look at you a long time before you went 
away." Without knowing it the child exactly 
described a true vision — her thought of her father 
was visualized, externalized, given a form which 
had definiteness, which could be placed and 
examined in detail, and was more or less per- 
manent. 

Various artificial expedients have been resorted 
to in order to assist in this process of distinct 
visualization ; and of these artificial means one of 
the most important and effective is known as 
crystal-gazing. 

It is a fact not often commented upon — indeed 
not often alluded to in general literature — that the 
crystal has from the earliest times been made use 
of for the purpose of producing visions, and for 
divination and prophecy. Not only has the 
crystal been used for this purpose, but also the 
mirror, a cup or glass of water or wine, or even 
some dark and glistening substance like treacle 
or ink poured into the palm of the hand, have all 
been used in a similar manner. The same practice 
is still observed amongst the people of India as 



CRYSTAL-GAZING IN EGYPT. 201 

well as the Arabs in northern Africa and other 
localities. An instance or two at the outset will 
illustrate the method and uses of the procedure. 

Mr. E. W. Lane, in his " Manners and Customs 
of the Modern Egyptians," published in 1836, 
gives this example : — 

Mr. Salt, the English consul-general to that 
country, had greatly interested Mr. Lane by some 
experiences which he related, and had thus excited 
his curiosity to witness some of these experiments 
himself. Mr. Salt had suspected some of his serv- 
ants of theft, but could not decide which one 
was guilty ; so it was arranged to test the powers 
of some of the native seers. Accordingly a ma- 
gician was sent for ; a boy was also necessary to 
act as seer, or as we would say crystal-gazer, and 
for this purpose Mr. Salt selected one himself. 

The magician wrote several charms, consisting 
of Arabic words, on pieces of paper, which were 
burnt in a brazier with a charcoal fire along with 
incense and perfumes. He then drew a diagram 
in the palm of the boy's right hand, and into the 
middle of this diagram he poured some ink. He 
then asked the boy to look intently at the ink in 
the palm of his hand. The boy soon began to see 
figures of persons in the ink, and presently de- 
scribed the thief so minutely that he was at once 



202 TELEPATHY AND THE SUBLIMINAL SELF. 

recognized by Mr. Salt, and on being arrested and 
accused of the crime he immediately confessed 
his guilt. 

Further investigation by Mr. Lane and Mr. 
Salt furnished other interesting results. A boy 
eight or nine years of age was usually chosen at 
random from those who happened to be passing 
by. Invocations were written upon paper by the 
magician, calling upon his familiar spirit, and also 
a verse from the Koran " to open the boy's eyes 
in a supernatural manner so as to make his sight 
pierce into what is to us the invisible world." 
These were thrown into a brazier with live char- 
coal and burned with aromatic seeds and drugs. 
The magic square, that is a square within a square, 
was drawn in the boy's palm, and certain Arabic 
characters were written in the spaces between the 
squares ; ink was then poured into the centre, and 
upon that the boy was to gaze intently. In this 
way visions were produced and various persons and 
scenes were described. Finally, Mr. Lane desired 
that Lord Nelson should be called for. The boy 
described a man in European clothes of dark blue, 
who had lost his left arm ; but looking closer he 
added — " No, it is placed to his breast." 

Lord Nelson had lost his right arm and it was 
his custom to carry the empty sleeve attached to 



CRYSTAL-GAZING WIDELY PRACTISED. 203 

his breast. Mr. Lane adds, " Without saying 
that I suspected the boy had made a mistake I 
asked the magician whether objects appeared 
in the ink as if actually before the boy's eyes, or 
as if in a glass, which made the right side appear 
the left? He replied, 'They appear as in a 
mirror,* This rendered the boy's description 
faultless." 

It is remarkable to notice how prevalent this 
mode of divination or second-sight has been in 
all ages. Traces of the same procedure have been 
found in Egypt, Persia, China, India, Greece, and 
Rome, and notably in Europe generally, from the 
tenth to the sixteenth centuries. A lady who 
withholds her name from the public, but who is 
perfectly well known to Mr. Myers, of the Society 
for Psychical Research, and who chooses to be 
known as Miss X., has been at great pains to col- 
lect curious information upon this subject and has 
added her own very interesting experience in crys- 
tal-gazing. She writes, '' It is interesting to ob- 
serve the close resemblance in the various methods 
of employing the mirror, and in the mystic sym- 
bolism which surrounds it, not only in different 
ages, but in different countries. From the time 
of the Assyrian monarch represented on the walls 
of the northwest palace of Nimrod down to the 



204 TELEPATHY AND THE SUBLIMINAL SELF. 

seventeenth century, when Dr. Dee placed his 
' Shew Stone ' on a cushioned table in the goodly 
little chapel next his chamber in the college of 
which he was warden at Manchester, the seer has 
surrounded himself with the ceremonials of wor- 
ship, whether to propitiate Pan or Osiris, or to 
disconcert Ahriman or the Prince of Darkness." 

The early Jewish Scriptures abound in indica- 
tions of the same practice. When the patriarch 
Joseph put his silver cup in the mouth of his 
young brother Benjamin's sack, in order that he 
might have a pretext for recalling his brethren 
after he had sent them away, his steward, in ac- 
cusing them of theft, uses this language : " Is not 
this the cup in which my lord drinketh, and 
whereby indeed he divineth ? " Showing the same 
use of the cup for purposes of divination as 
that indicated on the walls of the Assyrian 
Palace. 

The Urim and Thummim, as their names indi- 
cate, were doubtless stones of unusual splendor 
set in the high-priest's " breast-plate of judg- 
ment," and they were made use of to ''inquire of 
the Lord." 

When Joshua was to be set apart as a leader of 
the people, he was brought to Eleazar the priest, 
who should lay his hands on him and " ask coun- 



AMONGST HEBREWS, GREEKS AND ROMANS. 205 

sel for him after the judgment of Urim before the 
Lord." In the last days of Saul's career as King 
of Israel he desired to " inquire of the Lord " re- 
garding his future fortunes, but *' the Lord an- 
swered him not, neither by dreams, nor by Urim, 
nor by prophets ; and it is not uninteresting to 
note that Saul in his strait directly sought the 
Witch of Endor, from whom he obtained what 
proved to be true information regarding the disas- 
ters which were to overwhelm him. 

In a Persian romance it is noted that " if a 
mirror be covered with ink and placed in front of 
any one it will indicate whatever he wishes to 
know." 

The Greeks had a variety of methods of divina- 
tion by crystal-gazing. Sometimes it was by the 
mirror placed so as to reflect light upon the sur- 
face of a fountain of clear water, sometimes by 
mirrors alone ; sometimes they made use of glass 
vessels filled with water and surrounded with 
torches, sometimes of natural crystals, and some- 
times even of a child's " nails covered with oil and 
soot," so as to reflect the rays of the sun. 

The Romans made special use of crystals and 
mirrors, and children were particularly employed 
for mirror-reading when consulting regarding im- 
portant events ; thus in a manner taking the place 



2o6 TELEPATHY AND THE SUBLIMINAL SELF. 

of the early oracles. From Jewish and Pagan 
practices as a means of divination, clairvoyance 
and prophecy, the art of the crystal seer seems to 
have passed to early Christian times without 
material change except in ■ ceremonials. These 
seers are mentioned in the counsels of the Church 
as specularii, children often acting as the seers, 
and although in some quarters they were looked 
upon with suspicion as heretics, and were under 
the ban of the Church, yet they had an exten- 
sive following. 

Thomas Aquinas, speaking of the peculiar 
power of seeing visions possessed by children, 
says it is not to be ascribed to any virtue or in- 
nocence of theirs, nor any power of nature, but 
that it is the work of the devil. 

In Wagner's beautiful opera of Parsifal, based 
upon the legend of the Holy Grail, reference to 
the same custom is more than once evident. The 
second act opens with a scene representing the 
enchanted castle of Klingsor ; the magician him- 
self is seen gazing into a bright metallic mirror, 
in which he sees Parsifal approaching and recog- 
nizes and fears him as the promised guiltless one 
—the true king and guardian of the Grail — an 
office to which he himself had once aspired. In 
fact the Grail itself, in its earliest mythical and 



THE HOLY GRAIL AND PARSIVAL MYTHS. 207 

traditional form, as well as in its later develop- 
ment as a distinctly Christian symbol, was an in- 
strument of divination and prophecy. The 
Druids had their basin, sometimes filled with 
aromatic herbs, sometimes with the blood of the 
sacrificed victim ; but in either case it was potent 
for securing the proper psychic condition in 
the officiating priest or soothsayer; and while 
Arabic and Indian myths present the same idea, 
sometimes as a cup of divination, and sometimes as 
a brilliant stone, the British Islands were the 
main source of the traditions which eventually 
culminated in the legends of the Holy Grail, with 
its full store of beautiful and touching incidents, 
prophecies, and forms of worship. In each the 
special guardians and knights of the Grail appear, 
with Parsifal, the simple-minded, pure and pitiful 
knight as its restorer and king when lost or in 
unworthy hands. 

In the German version of the twelfth cent- 
ury as given by Wolfram, in his Parzival, the 
Grail is a beautiful, sacred stone, enshrined in 
the magnificent temple at Montsalvat, guarded" 
by the consecrated knights and the sick and 
erring, but repentant, King Amfortas. While the 
unhappy king was worshipping with gaze intent 
upon the Sacred Emblem, suddenly letters of 



2o8 TELEPATHY AND THE SUBLIMINAL SELF. 

fire surrounded it and he read the cheering 

prophecy : 

" In the loving soul of a guiltless one 
Put thy faith — Him have I chosen.'* 

Kufferath remarks, '' The religious emblem 
soon became a symbolic object — it revealed to its 
worshippers the knowledge of the future, the 

mystery of the world, the treasures of human 
knowledge, and imparted a poetic inspiration." 
So it comes to pass that in the legend in its latest 
form — the splendid work of the Master of Bay- 
reuth, the Holy Grail, as a chalice and Christian 
emblem, Is still endowed with the same miraculous 
power, and is rescued from the unfortunate 
guardianship of Amfortas by the " loving soul 
of a guiltless one '* — the simple, tried, and much- 
enduring Parsifal, miraculously promised long 
before by the Grail itself. 

It will be seen, then, that crj'stal-gazing in its 
various forms has, from the earliest times, been 
practised with great ceremony for the purpose of 
acquiring knowledge concerning affairs and events 
■unknown and often not discoverable by ordinary 
methods. 

Stripped of its fictitious accessories — its charms, 
incantations. Incense and prayers — one single im- 
portant fact remains common in the most ancient 



WHAT CRYSTAL GAZING REALLY IS. 209 

and the most modern usages, and that fact is the 
steady and continuous gazing at a bright object. 
It is identical with Braid's method of inducing 
the hypnotic trance, with Luys' method, causing 
his patients to gaze at revolving mirrors, and with 
the method of hypnotizers generally who desire 
their patients to direct their gaze toward some 
specified, and preferably some bright or reflecting 
object. 

In crystal gazing, as ordinarily practised, the 
full hypnotic condition is not usually induced ; 
but in many cases a condition of reverie occurs, 
in which pictures or visions fill the mind or ap- 
pear externalized in the crystal or mirror. With 
some persons this condition so favorable to vis- 
ualizing, is produced by simply becoming passive; 
with others the gazing at a bright or reflecting 
object assists in securing that end, while with 
many none of these means, nor yet the assistance 
of the most skilful hypnotizer, avails to secure 
the message-bearing action of the subliminal 
self. 

The experiences of Miss X., in crystal-gazing 

are devoid of the interest imparted by exciting 

incident, and on that very account are the more 

valuable as illustrating our subject. She has 

friends of whose experiments she has carefully 
14 



2IO TELEPATHY AND THE SUBLIMINAL SELF. 

observed the results, and she has some seventy- 
cases or experiments of her own of which she 
has kept carefully prepared notes, always made 
directly or within an hour after each experi- 
ment. For a crystal she recommends " a good- 
sized magnifying glass placed on a dark back- 
ground." 

She classifies her results as follows : — 
(i) After-images or recrudescent memories com- 
ing up from the subconscious strata to which the s^ 
had fallen. / 

(2) Objectivations, or the visualizing of ideas 
or images which already exist consciously or un- 
consciously in the mind. 

(3) Visions possibly telepathic, or clairvoyant, 
implying acquirement of knowledge by supra- 
normal means. 

The following are some of Miss X.'s experi- 
ments : — 

She had been occupying herself with accounts 
and opened a drawer to take out her banking 
book ; accidentally her hand came in contact 
with the crystal she was in the habit of using, 
and she welcomes the suggestion of a change of 
occupation. Figures, however, were still upper- 
most, and the crystal showed her nothing but the 
combination 7694. Dismissing this as probably 



MISS X ' EXPERIMENTS. 2 1 1 

the number of the cab she had driven in that 
morning, or a chance combination of figures with 
which she had been occupied, she laid aside the 
crystal and took up her banking book, which 
certainly she had not seen for several months. 
Greatly to her surprise she found that 7694 was 
the number of her book, plainly indicated on the 
cover. 

She declares that she would have utterly failed 
to recall the figures, and could not even have 
guessed the number of digits nor the value of the 
first figure. 

Again : — Having carelessly destroyed a letter 
without preserving the address of her correspond- 
ent she tried in vain to recall it. She knew the 
county, and, searching on a map, she recognized 
the name of the town, one quite unfamiliar to 
her, but she had no clue to the house or street, 
till at length it occurred to her to test the value 
of the crystal as a means of recalling forgotten 
knowledge. A short inspection showed her the 
words, " H. House," in gray letters on a white 
ground. Having nothing better to rely upon she 
risked posting the letter to the address so curi- 
ously supplied. A day or two brought an an- 
swer — on paper headed " H. House " in gray 
letters on a white ground. 



212 TELEPATHY AND THE SUBLIMINAL SELE. 

One more illustration from Miss X., one of her 
earliest experiments, numbered ii, in her note- 
book. There came into the crystal a vision per- 
plexing and wholly unexpected : a quaint old 
chair, an aged hand, a worn black coat-sleeve 
resting on the arm of the chair. It was slowly 
recognized as a recollection of a room in a coun- 
try vicarage which she had not been in and had 
seldom thought of since she was a child of ten. 
But whence came the vision, and why to-day? 
The clue was found. That same day she had 
been reading Dante, a book which she had first 
learned to read and enjoy by the help of the 
aged vicar with the " worn black coat-sleeve " 
resting on the same quaint, oak chair-arm in that 
same corner of the study in the country vicarage. 

Here are two cases from the same writer be- 
longing to the third division of her classification, 
namely, where an explanation of the vision re- 
quires the introduction of a telepathic influence. 
On Monday, Februar>' nth, she took up the 
crystal with the deliberate wish and intention 
of seeing a certain figure which occupied her 
thoughts at the time ; but instead of the desired 
figure the field was preoccupied by a plain little 
nosegay of daffodils, such as might be formed 
by two or three fine flowers bunched together. 



A BUNCH OF DAFFODILS, 213 

This presented itself in several different positions 
notwithstanding her wish to be rid of it, so as to 
have the field clear for her desired picture. She 
concluded that the vision came in consequence of 
her having the day before seen the first daffodils 
of the season on a friend's dinner-table. But the 
resemblance to these was not at all complete, as 
they were loosely arranged with ferns and ivy, 
whereas the crystal vision was a compact little 
bunch without foliage of any kind. On Thursday, 
February 14th, she very unexpectedly received as 
a *' Valentine " a painting on a blue satin ground, 
of a bunch of daffodils corresponding exactly 
with her crystal vision. She also ascertained 
that on Monday the nth, the artist had spent 
several hours in making studies of these flowers, 
arranged in different positions. 

Again : — On Saturday, March 9th, she had 
written a rather impatient note to a friend, ac- 
cusing her of having, on her return from the 
Continent, spent several days in London without 
visiting her. On Sunday evening following, she 
found her friend before her in the crystal, but 
could not understand why she held up in a dep- 
recating manner what seemed to be a music 
portfolio. However, she made a note of the 
vision and sketched the portfolio. On Monday 



214 TELEPATHY AND THE SUBLIMINAL SELF. 

she received an answer to her impatient letter, 
pleading guilty to the charge of neglect, but 
urging as an excuse that she was attending the 
Royal Academy of Music and was engaged there 
the greater part of every day. Such an excuse 
was to the last degree unexpected, as her friend 
was a married woman and had never given serious 
attention to music. It was true, however — and 
she afterwards learned that she carried a portfolio 
which was the counterpart of the one she had 
sketched from her crystal vision. 

The following incident in which an East India 
army officer, Col. Wickham, his wife. Princess di 
Cristoforo, and Ruth, their educated native serv- 
ant, were the chief actors, illustrates another 
phase of crystal-gazing. All three of the actors 
participating in the incident were well known 
personally to Mr. Myers, who reports the case. 
Briefly stated : In 1885, Colonel, then Major, 
Wickham, was stationed with the Royal Artillery 
at Colabra, about two miles from Bombay. Mrs. 
Wickham was accustomed to experiment with 
some of the Indian servants and especially Ruth, 
by having her look in a glass of magnetized 
water. One morning Lord Reay was expected to 
arrive at Bombay, and there was to be a grand full- 
dress parade of the English troops. While sitting 



FO UND THE MAJOR'S PO UCH-BEL T. 215 

at the breakfast table the major directed his 
orderly to see that his uniform was in readiness. 
The man obeyed, but soon returned with a de- 
jected air, and stammered out — " Sahib, me no can 
find the dress pouch-belt." A general hunt for 
the lost article was instituted, but to no purpose ; 
the pouch-belt was absolutely missing. The en- 
raged major stormed and accused the servants of 
stealing it, which only produced a tumult and a 
storm of denials from them all. " Now," cried the 
major, '' is an excellent opportunity to test the see- 
ing powers of Ruth. Bring her in at once and 
let her try if she can find my pouch-belt." Accord- 
ingly a tumbler was filled with water, and Mrs. 
W. placing it on her left hand made passes over 
it with her right. Water so treated could always 
be detected with absolute certainty by Ruth, sim- 
ply by tasting it — a fact not uncommonly ob- 
served, and which was an additional proof that 
she possessed unusual perceptive power. Into 
this glass of water Ruth gazed intently, but she 
could discern nothing. She was commanded to 
find the thief, but no thief could be seen. Chang- 
ing her tactics, Mrs. W. then commanded Ruth 
to see where the major was the last time he wore 
the belt. At once she described the scene of a 
grand parade which took place months before. 



2i6 TELEPATHY AND THE SUBLIMINAL SELF. 

and which they all recognized. " Do not take 
your eyes off from the major for a moment," said 
Mrs. W., and Ruth continued to gaze intently at 
the pageant in the glass. At length the parade 
ended and Ruth said, ** Sahib has gone into a big 
house by the water ; all his regimentals are put in 
the tin case, but the pouch-belt is left out ; it is 
hanging on a peg in the dressing-room of the big 
house by the water." " The yacht club ! " cried 
the major. '' Patilla, send some one at once to 
see if the belt has been left there.'' The search 
was rewarded by finding the belt as described, and 
the servants returned bringing it with a grand 
tumult of triumph. On many other occasions 
was Ruth's aid successfully invoked to find lost 
articles. 

Instead of a glass of water, some springs and 
wells when gazed into have the same effect of 
producing visions, especially when a mirror is so 
held at the same time as to reflect light upon the 
surface of the water. Springs of this sort have 
been reported at various periods in the past, some 
being frequented for health and some for purposes 
of divination. The latest instance of a well pos- 
sessing the quality or power of producing visions 
is that upon the farm of Col. J. J. Deyer at Hand- 
soms, Va. It was in May, 1892, that the curious 



THE VIRGINIA SPRING. 217 

influence pertaining to this well was first ob- 
served and soon it was thronged with visitors. 
Faces, both familiar and strange, of people living 
and of those long dead, and hundreds of other 
objects, animate and inanimate, were distinctly 
seen upon the surface of the water. The water 
of the well is unusually clear and the bottom of 
white sand is clearly visible. A mirror is held over 
the top of the well with face toward the water so 
as to throw reflected light upon the surface. At 
first Miss Deyer, the colonel's daughter, always 
held the mirror, but afterwards it was found that 
any one who could hold the mirror steadily per- 
formed the duty equally well. If the mirror was 
held unsteadily the pictures Were indistinct or 
failed to appear at all ; and the brighter the day 
the better the pictures. Many level headed men 
and some well qualified to observe curious psy- 
chical phenomena visited the well, and nearly all 
were convinced that, under favorable circum- 
stances, remarkable pictures appeared ; naturally, 
however, different causes were assigned for these 
appearances. Prof. Dolbear and Mr. T. E. Allen, 
from the American Psychical Society, saw nothing 
remarkable during their visit to the well, and 
referred the pictures seen by so many people to 
the reflection of objects about the well, aided by 



2i8 TELEPATHY AND THE SUBLIMINAL SELF. 

the mental excitement and expectation of so 
many spectators. This explanation, however, 
seems hardly sufficient to account for the hallu- 
cinations of so large a number of persons kept up 
for so long a time. At all events, an interesting 
psychic element of some sort was active. 

Col. Deyer is an intelligent man, commanding 
the respect of his neighbors, and has held an 
appointment of considerable importance under 
the government at Washington. In a letter dated 
December 2d, 1893, he says: — "Thousands of 
people from various sections of the Union have 
visited the place — of course some laugh at it. I 
do myself sometimes, as I am not superstitious 
and take little stock in spooks or anything con- 
nected therewith ; but the well is here, and still 
shoAvs up many wondrous things, but not so plen- 
tiful nor so plainly as it did a year ago." 

We have presented in this well the most favor- 
able conditions possible for crystal-gazing — a 
body of unusually clear sparkling water, lying 
upon a white sand bottom, and the rays of the 
sun reflected into it by means of a mirror ; — no 
better " cup of divination" could be desired, nor 
any better circumstances for securing the psy- 
chical conditions favorable for the action of the 
subliminal self. 



SENSOR Y A UTOMA TISMS. 2 1 9 

The various methods of practising crystal-gazing 
here noticed may be looked upon simply as so 
many different forms of sensory automatism, refer- 
able in these instances to the sense of sight ; and 
whether produced by using the " cup of divina- 
tion," the ink or treacle in the palm of the hand, 
the jewels of the Jewish high-priest, the ordinary 
crystal or stone of the early Christian centuries, 
and even down to the experiments of Miss X., 
and the Society for Psychical Research, or last of 
all, the wells or springs of clear water, either the 
early ones of Greece and Rome, or the latest 
one on the farm of Col. Deyer, they are all simply 
methods of securing such a condition by gazing 
fixedly at a bright object, as best to facilitate 
communication between the ordinary or prim- 
ary self, and the secondary or subliminal self. 
It is the first, and perhaps the most impor- 
tant, in a series of sensory automatisms, or those 
having reference to the senses, in distinction from 
motor automatisms, or those produced by various 
automatic actions of the body. 

These sensory automatisms are usually looked 
upon as hallucinations — but so far as the term 
hallucination conveys the idea of deception or 
falsity it is inappropriate, since the messages 
brought in this manner are just as real — just as 



y 



220 TELEPATHY AND THE SUBLIMINAL SELF. 

veridical or truth-telling as automatic writing or 
speaking. 

Hearing is another form of sensorj^ automatism, 
which, while less common than that of seeing, has 
also been noticed in all ages. 

The child Samuel, ministering to the High 
Priest Eli, three times in one night, heard himself 
called by name, and three times came to Eli say- 
ingj "Here am I;" adding at last, "for surely 
thou didst call me." The wise high-priest rec- 
ognized the rare psychic qualities of the child 
and brought him up for the priesthood in place of 
his own wayward sons ; and he became the great 
seer of Israel. 

Socrates was accustomed to hear a voice which 
always admonished him when the course he was 
pursuing or contemplating was wrong or harmful ; 
but it was silent when the contemplated course 
was right. This was the famous " Daemon of Soc- 
rates," and was described and discussed by Xen- 
ophon and Plato as well as other Greek writers 
and many modern ones. Socrates himself called 
it the " Divine Sign." And on that account he 
was accused of introducing new gods, and thus 
offering indignity to the accredited gods of Greece. 
On this, as one of the leading charges, Socrates 
was tried and condemned to death ; but in all the 



JOAN OF ARCS VOICES. 221 

proceedings connected with his trial and condem- 
nation he persisted in his course which he knew 
would end in his death, rather than be false to his 
convictions of duty and right ; and this he did 
because the voice — the " Divine Sign " — which 
always before had restrained him in any wrong 
course, was notheard restraining him in hispresent 
course. 

Only once was it heard, and that was to restrain 
him from preparing any set argument in his de- 
fence before his judges. So he accepted his sen- 
tence and drank the hemlock, surrounded by his 
friends, to whom he calmly explained that death 
could not be an evil thing, not only from the ar- 
guments which he had adduced, but also because 
the Divine Sign, which never failed to admonish 
him when pursuing any harmful course, had not 
admonished nor restrained him in this course 
which had led directly to his death. 

Joan of Arc heard voices, which in childhood 
only guided her in her ordinary duties, but which 
in her early womanhood made her one of the 
most conspicuous figures in the history of her 
time. They placed her, a young and unknown 
peasant girl, as a commander at the head of the 
defeated, disorganized, and discouraged armies of 
France, aroused them to enthusiasm, made them 



222 TELEPATHY AND THE SUBLIMINAL SELF. 

victorious, freed her country from the power of 
England, and placed the rightful prince upon the 
throne. She also heard and obeyed her guiding 
voices, even unto martyrdom. 

Numerous instances might be cited occurring in 
ancient and also in modern times where the sub- 
liminal self has sent its message of instruction, 
guidance, warning, or restraint to the primary self 
by means of impressions made upon the organ of 
hearing. Socrates, Joan of Arc, Swedenborg, and 
many others considered these instructions infal- 
lible, supernatural, or divine ; but in other cases 
the messages so given have been trivial, perhaps 
even false, thus removing the element of infalli- 
bility and absolute truthfulness from messages of 
this sort, and at the same time casting a doubt 
upon their supernatural character in any case. It 
seems wisest, therefore, at least to examine these 
and all cases of automatically received messages, 
whether by writing, trance-speaking, dreams, 
visions, or the hearing of voices, with a definite 
conception of a real and natural cause and origin 
for these messages in a subliminal self, forming a 
definite part of each individual : bearing in mind 
also that this subliminal self possesses powers and 
characteristics varying in each individual case, in 
many cases greatly transcending the powers and 



MUST BE JUDGED BY INTRINSIC MERIT. 223 

capabilities of the normal or primary self. But 
infallibility, though sometimes claimed, is by no 
means to be expected from this source, and the 
messages coming from each subliminal self must 
be judged and valued according to their own in- 
trinsic character and merit, just as a message 
coming to us from any primary self, whether known 
or unknown to us, must be judged and valued 
according to its source, character, and merit. 



CHAPTER X. 

PHANTASMS. 

Perhaps no department of Psychical Research 
is looked upon from such divers and even quite 
opposite standpoints as that which relates to 
Apparitions or Phantasms. Many intelligent 
people, in a general way, accept them as reahties 
but assign for them a supernatural origin ; while 
others discredit them altogether because they 
have apparently no basis except an assumed 
supernatural one. 

It has been said that primitive, undeveloped, 

and ignorant people almost universally believe 

in ghosts ; while with the advance of civilization, 

culture, and general intelligence, the frequency 

of alleged apparitions and the belief in ghosts 

diminishes or altogether disappears. If this 

statement were to stand unqualified, by so much 

would the reality and respectability of phantasms 

be discredited. Possibly, however, it may be 

found that the last word has not yet been said, 
224 



PER CEP TION DEFINED. 2^5 

and that there may exist a scientific aspect for 
even so unstable and diaphanous a subject as 
ghosts. 

Instead of going over the literature of the sub- 
ject from the earliest times — a literature, by the 
way, which in the hands of Tylor, Maury, Scott, 
Ralston, Mrs. Crowe and others certainly does 
not lack interest — it will better suit our present 
purpose to examine some facts relative to per- 
ception in general and vision in particular, and 
give some examples illustrating different phases 
of the subject. 

Perception may be defined as the cognizance 
which the mind takes of impressions presented to 
it through the organs of sense, and possibly also 
by other means. 

One class of perceptions is universally recog- 
nized and is in a measure understood, namely, 
perceptions arising from impressions made by 
recognized external objects or forces upon the 
organs of sense, sight, hearing, smell, taste, and 
also the general sense of touch. These percep 
tions in particular are designated as real or true^ 
because they correspond to recognized external 
realities. 

But impressions are also made upon the organs 
of special sense by influences which are not rec- 
15 



2 26 TELEPATHY AND THE SUBLIMINAL SELF. 

ognized as having any objective reality, but 
which nevertheless affect the senses in a manner 
often identical with that in which they are affected 
by recognized external objects, and they cause 
the same perceptions to arise in the mind. 
Hence another broad class of perceptions includes 
those which are taken cognizance of by the mind 
from impressions made upon the organs of sense 
in other ways and by other means than by exter- 
nal objects, and often where there is no evidence 
that any external object exists corresponding to 
the impression so made. Perceptions arising in 
these various ways are called hallucinations. 

On close examination, however, it is found 
that the sharp line of separation between what 
has and what has not an objective reality is not 
easily drawn, any more than in biology the sharp 
line between animal and vegetable life can be 
easily drawn, or at the lower end of the scale 
between the living and the not living. 

So the origin of those perceptions which are 
classed as hallucinations has always been a subject 
of controversy, even among philosophers of the 
greatest merit and eminence. 

Without following out the discussions which 
have arisen on this point — discussions which are 
often confusing and generally inconclusive, a 



so UR CES OF HALL UCINA TIONS. 227 

fairly distinct view of the subject may be ob- 
tained by considering the origin of these per- 
ceptions under three heads — namely : — 

(i) Perceptions which are reckoned as halluci- 
nations may be originated ^^;^/r<3;//j/ / that is, they 
may arise wholly within the mind itself without 
any direct external stimulus. For instance the 
characters drawn by the novelist may become so 
real to him, and even to some of his readers, that 
they become externalized — actual objects of 
visual perception and are seen to act and even 
heard to speak. The instance is repeatedly 
quoted of the painter who, after carefully study- 
ing a sitter's appearance, could voluntarily project 
it visibly into space and paint the portrait, not 
from the original, but from the phantasm so pro- 
duced ; and of another who could externalize 
and project other mental pictures in the same 
manner, pictures which so interested him and 
were so subject to the ordinary laws of vision that 
he would request any one who took a position 
in front of them, to move away so as not to 
obstruct his view. 

It will be noticed in these cases that although 
the perception has its origin centrally, in the mind 
itself, and is even voluntarily produced, still, it 
is seen as an impression made upon the visual 



22^ TELEPATHY AND THE SUBLIMINAL SELP, 

organ in exactly the same manner as a picture 
thrown upon the retina by a real external object ; 
it disappears when the eyes are closed or an 
opaque object intervenes, and follows the laws of 
optics in general ; hence, strictly speaking, these 
perceptions are also real. 

(2) Perceptions may have their origin /^r^/^^r- 
ally — that is, the point of excitation which causes 
the act of perception in the mind may exist in 
the external sense organs themselves, even when 
no external object corresponding to the per- 
ception exists at the time, or it is not in a position 
on account of distance or intervening objects to 
affect the senses. 

In examining the cases which may be placed 
under this head they resolve themselves into two 
classes : those which occur in connection with 
some disease or defect in the sense organ con- 
cerned, and those which are recrudescences or 
after-visions, arising from over-excitation of those 
organs ; for instance, after looking through a 
window in a very bright light — even a consider- 
able length of time afterwards — on shutting the 
eyes or looking into a dark room, an image of the 
window is seen with all its divisions and peculiar- 
ities of construction distinctly presented. To the 
country lad returning home at night from his 



TELEPA THIC ORIGIN OF PERCEPTIONS. 229 

first visit to the circus the whole scene is again 
presented ; and ring, horses, equestrians, acrobats 
and clowns are all seen and externalized with the 
utmost distinctness ; even the crack of the ring- 
master's whip is heard and the jokes and antics 
of the clowns repeated. 

(3) Perceptions may have their origin tele 
pathically — that is, scenes and incidents transpir- 
ing at a distance far too great to affect the bodily 
organs of sense in any direct or ordinary way do, 
nevertheless, in some way, cause perceptions to 
arise in the mind corresponding to those same 
scenes and incidents. 

This is comparatively a new proposition in 
psychology and has for its basis studies and ex- 
periments which have only been systematically 
made within the past fourteen years. These 
studies and experiments relate to telepathy, au- 
tomatism, and the action of the subliminal self. 
They have been undertaken and carried on by 
various societies interested in experimental psy- 
chology, but chiefly by the English Society for 
Psychical Research, some of the results of whose 
labors have been briefly sketched in the preced- 
ing chapters. 

In addition to the reports of these societies an 
important contribution to the subject of appari- 



230 TELEPATHY AND THE SUBLIMINAL SELF. 

tions was published by the then secretaries of the 
Society for Psychical Research, the late Mn 
Edmund Gurney, Mr. Frederick W. H. Myers, 
and Mr. Frank Podmore. 

It appeared under the title, Phajitasms of the 
Living, and contained more than seven hundred 
instances relating to various forms of hallucina- 
tions and phantasms — carefully studied and au- 
thenticated cases which were selected from several 
thousand presented for examination. It is to 
these sources chiefly that I shall refer for cases 
illustrating the subject under consideration. 

It seems hardly necessary to recapitulate here 
the experiments on which the doctrine of telepathy 
or thought-transference is established — experi- 
ments which have been carefully made by so 
many well qualified persons, and which have 
proved convincing to nearly every one, whether 
scientific or unscientific, who has patiently fol- 
lowed them, though of course not convincing to 
those who choose to remain ignorant of the facts. 

The same is true regarding the subject of au- 
tomatism and the existence and action of the 
subliminal self. It remains to show the interest- 
ing relations which these subjects bear to hallu- 
cinations in general, and especially to phantasms 
and apparitions. 



INFLUENCED AT A DISTANCE. 23 1 

It is well known that hallucinations can be vol- 
untarily or purposely produced by one person in 
the mind of another, and in various ways, though 
few perhaps consider to what an extent this is 
possible. In many of the most astonishing feats 
of the conjurer, and especially of the Indian fakir, 
suggestion and the imagination are brought into 
service to aid in producing the illusions. 

Regarding the hallucinations which may be 
produced in the mind of the hypnotized subject 
by the hypnotizer there can be no doubt. 

The following case is in point and illustrates 
telepathic influence excited at a distance as well. 
It is from Phantasms of the Living, and the 
agent, Mr. E. M. Glissold, of 3 Oxford Square, W., 
writes substantially as follows : — 

*' In the year 1878 there was a carpenter named 
Gannaway employed by me to mend a gate in 
my garden ; when a friend of mine (Moens) called 
upon me and the conversation turned upon mes- 
merism. He asked me if I knew anything about 
it myself. On my replying in the affirmative he 
said, ' Can you mesmerize any one at a distance ? * 
I said that I had never tried to do so, but that 
there was a man in the garden whom I could 
easily mesmerize, and that I would try the experi- 
ment with this man if he (Moens) would tell me 



232 TELEPATHY AND THE SUBLIMINAL SELF. 

what to do. He then said, ' Form an impression 
of the man whom you wish to mesmerize, in your 
own mind, and then wish him strongly to come 
to you.' 

" I very much doubted the success of the ex- 
periment, but I followed the directions of my 
friend, and I was extremely astonished to hear 
the steps of the man whom I wished to appear, 
running after me ; he came up to me directly and 
asked me what I wanted with him. I will add 
that my friend and I had been walking in the 
garden and had seen and spoken with the car- 
penter, but when I wished him to come to me I 
was quite out of his sight behind the garden wall, 
one hundred yards distant, and had neither by 
conversation nor otherwise led him to believe 
that I intended to mesmerize him. 

" On another occasion, when the Hon. Auberon 
Herbert was present, the following scene occurred. 
Gannaway was mesmerized and stood in one 
corner of the dining-room. Herbert sat at the 
table and wrote the following programme, each 
scene of which Mr. Glissold, the magnetizer, was 
to silently call up in his own mind, 

" (i) I see a house in flames. 

" (2) I see a woman looking out of a window. 

" (3) She has a child in her arms. 



SCENES TELEPATHICALLY TRANSFERRED. 233 

" (4) She throws it out of the window. 

" (5) Is it hurt— ? 

" Gannaway became much excited, describing 
each scene as it passed through the mind of his 
hypnotizer. Several well known persons add their 
testimony to the above statement." 

A single case of mental action so strange and 
unusual, no matter how well authenticated, might 
not impress a cautious truth-seeker, but when for- 
tified by well studied cases in the experience of 
such men as Esdaile, as shown in his remarkable 
experiments upon the natives of India, and 
especially his well known one of hypnotizing the 
blind man at a distance, also those of Prof. Janet, 
Prof. Richet, Dr. Gibert, and Dr. Hericourt, in 
France under the observation of Mr. Myers and 
other members of the Society for Psychical 
Research, and hundreds of other cases of hyp- 
notizing at a distance, or silently influencing the 
subject without hypnotization, the matter then 
challenges attention and belief ; — and it is from 
abundant observation of such cases, from the 
simplest examples of thought-transference to 
the most wonderful exhibition of perceptive power 
at great distances, that the doctrine of Telepathy 
is founded. 

In the following case the agent was able to 



234 TELEPATHY AND THE SUBLIMINAL SELF. 

project his own semblance or phantasm a distance 
of several miles ; and it was then distinctly per- 
ceived by a young lady, a friend of the agent. 
The circumstances were these : — Two young men, 
Mr. A. H. W. Cleave and Mr. H. P. Sparks, aged 
respectively eighteen and nineteen years, were 
fellow-students of engineering at the Navy Yard, 
Portsmouth, England. While there, they engaged 
in some mesmeric experiments, and after a time 
Sparks was able to put Cleave thoroughly into the 
hypnotic condition. The following is Mr. Sparks' 
account of what occurred. 

" For the last year or fifteen months I have been 
in the habit of mesmerizing a fellow-student of 
mine. The way I did it was by simply looking 
into his eyes as he lay in an easy position on a 
bed. This produced sleep. After a few times I 
found that this sleep was deepened by making 
long passes after the patient was off. Then comes 
the remarkable part of this sort of mesmerism." 
(Mr. Sparks then describes his subject's ability to 
see in his trance places in which he was interested 
if he resolved to see them before he was hyp- 
notized.) " However, it has been during the last 
week or so I have been surprised and startled by 
an extraordinary affair. Last Friday evening (Jan. 
15th, 1886), he (Cleave) expressed his wish to 



PHANTASM TELEPATHICALLY TRANSFERRD. 235 

see a young lady living in Wandsworth, and he 
also said he would try to make himself seen by 
her. I accordingly mesmerized him and continued 
the long passes for about twenty minutes, concen- 
trating my will on his idea. When he came round 
(after one hour and twenty minutes' trance) he said 
he had seen her in the dining-room ; and that after 
a time she grev/ restless ; then suddenly she looked 
straight at him, and then covered her eyes with 
her hands ; just then he came round. Last 
Monday evening (Jan. i8th) we did the same 
thing, and this time he said he thought he had 
frightened her, as after she had looked at him a few 
minutes she fell back in her chair in a sort of faint. 
Her little brother was in the room at the time. 
Of course after this he expected a letter if the 
vision was real; and on Wednesday morning he 
received a letter from the young lady, asking 
whether anything had happened to him, as on 
Friday evening she was startled by seeing him 
standing at the door of the room. After a minute 
he disappeared and she thought it might have 
been fancy ; but on Monday evening she was still 
more startled by seeing him again, and this time 
much clearer, and it so frightened her that she 
nearly fainted.'* 

Mr, Cleave also writes a very interesting ac^ 



236 TELE PA THY AND THE SUBLIMINAL SELF. 

count of his experience in the matter, and two 
fellow-students who were in the room during the 
experiments also write corroborating the state- 
ments made. 

The following is a copy of the letter in which 
the young lady, Miss A., describes her side of the 
affair. It is addressed, "Mr. A. H. W. Cleave, 
H. M. S. Marlborough, Portsmouth," and is post- 
marked Wandsworth, Jan. 19th, 1886. 

" Wandsworth, 

" Tuesday morning. 

" Dear Arthur, — Has anything happened to 
you ? Please write and let me know at once, for 
I have been so frightened. 

" Last Tuesday evening I was sitting in the 
dining-room reading, when I happened to look 
up, and could have declared I saw you standing 
at the door looking at me. I put my handker- 
chief to my eyes, and when I looked again you 
were gone. 

" I thought it must have been only my fancy, but 
last night (Monday) while I was at supper I saw 
you again just as before, and was so frightened 
that I nearly fainted. Luckily only my brother 
was there or it would have attracted attention. 
Now do write at once and tell me how you are. 
I really cannot write any more now." 



TRANSFERRED IN ORDINARY SLEEP. 237 

Probably the young lady is in error regarding 
the date of the first experiment, which may be 
accounted for by her excited condition — the 
shock of the last experiment having proved 
decidedly serious, as was afterwards discovered, 
and she begged that the experiment might never 
be repeated. 

Both young men mention Friday as the day of 
their first decided success, but they were experi- 
menting on previous days, including Tuesday, 
when the young lady writes she first saw Cleave's 
phantasm. Concerning the date of the last ex- 
periment there is no question. 

Effects similar to those just related may also 
occur where the agent is in ordinary sleep, or at 
least when no hypnotizing process is made use of. 
The agent in this case first formulates the wish or 
strong resolution to be present and be seen at 
a certain place or by a certain person, and then 
goes to sleep, and generally remains uncon- 
scious of the result until learned from the per- 
cipient. 

In the following case the name of the agent is 
withheld from publication, though known to Mr. 
Myers who reports the case ; the percipient is the 
Rev. W. Stainton-Moses. The agent goes on to 
state : — 



238 TELEPATHY AND THE StHSLlMlNAL SELF. 

" One evening early last year (1878), I resolved 
to try to appear to Z. (Mr. Moses) at some miles 
distant. I did not inform him beforehand of my 
intended experiment, but retired to rest shortly 
before midnight with thoughts intently fixed on 
Z., with whose room and surroundings, however, 
I was quite unacquainted. I soon fell asleep and 
woke up the next morning unconscious of any- 
thing having taken place. On seeing Z. a few 
days afterwards I inquired, ' Did anything happen 
at your rooms on Saturday night ? ' ' Yes/ he 
replied, ' a great deal happened. I had been sit- 
ting over the fire with M., smoking and chatting. 
About 12 : 30 he rose to leave, and I let him out 
myself. I returned to the fire to finish my pipe 
when I saw you sitting in the chair just vacated 
by him. I looked intently at you, and then took 
up a newspaper to assure myself I was not dream- 
ing, but on laying it down I saw you still there. 
While I gazed without speaking, you faded away. 
Though I imagined you must be fast asleep in 
bed at that hour, yet you appeared dressed 
in your ordinary garments, such as you usu- 
ally wear every day.' 'Then my experiment 
seems to have succeeded,' I said. *The next 
time I come ask me what I want, as I had fixed 
on my mind certain questions to ask you, but 



SEEN BY TWO PERCIPIENTS. 239 

I was probably waiting for an invitation to 
speak.' 

** A few weeks later the experiment was re- 
peated with equal success, I, as before, not 
informing Z. when it was made. On this oc- 
casion he not only questioned me upon the 
subject which was at that time under very 
warm discussion between us, but detained me 
by the exercise of his will, some time after I 
had intimated a desire to leave. As on the 
former occasion no recollection remained of 
the event, or seeming event, of the preceding 
night." 

Mr. Moses writes, September 27th, 1885, con- 
firming this account. Mr. Moses also says that 
he has never on any other occasion seen the 
figure of a living person in a place where the per- 
son was not. 

The next case, while presenting features sim- 
ilar to the last, differs from it in this respect : 
that there are two percipients. It is copied 
from the manuscript book of the agent, Mr. S. 
H. B. 

Mr. B. writes : — " On a certain Sunday evening 
in November, 1881, having been reading of the 
great power which the human will is capable of 
exercising, I determined with the whole force of 



240 TELEPATHY AND THE SUBLIMINAL SELF. 

my being that I would be present in spirit in the 
front bedroom, on the second floor of a house 
situated at 22 Hogarth Road, Kensington, in 
which room slept two ladies of my acquaintance, 
Miss L. S. V. and Miss E. C. V., aged respect- 
ively twenty-five and eleven years. I lived at 
this time at 23 Kildare Gardens, a distance of 
about three miles from Hogarth Road, and I had 
not mentioned in any way my intention of trying 
this experiment to either of the above named 
ladies, for the simple reason that it was only 
on retiring to rest upon Sunday night that I 
made up my mind to do so. The time at 
which I determined I would be there was one 
o'clock in the morning, and I also had a strong 
intention of making my presence perceptible. 

" On the following Thursday I went to see the 
ladies in question, and in the course of conversa- 
tion (without any allusion to the subject on my 
part), the elder one told me that on the previous 
Sunday night she had been much terrified by 
perceiving me standing by her bedside, and that 
she screamed when the apparition advanced to- 
wards her, and awoke her little sister who also 
saw me. I asked her if she was awake at the 
time, and she replied most decidedly in the 
affirmative ; and upon my inquiring the time of 



VERIFICATIONS. 24! 

the occurrence, she replied about one o'clock in 
the morning." 

Miss Verity's account is as follows : — 

" On a certain Sunday evening, about twelve 
months since, at our house in Hogarth Road, 
Kensington, I distinctly saw Mr. B. in my room 
about one o'clock. I was perfectly awake and 
w^as much terrified. I awoke my sister by scream- 
ing, and she saw the apparition herself. Three 
days after, when I saw Mr. B., I told him what 
had happened ; but it was some time before I 
could recover from the shock I had received, and 
the remembrance is too vivid to be ever erased 

from my memory. 

*'L. S. Verity." 

Miss E. C. Verity writes : — 

" I remember the occurrence of the event de- 
scribed by my sister in the annexed paragraph, 
and her description is quite correct. I saw the 
apparition at the same time and under the same 
circumstances." 

Miss A. S. Verity writes: — 

'*I remember quite clearly the evening my 
eldest sister awoke me by calHng to me from an 
16 



242 TELEPATHY AND THE SUBLIMINAL SELF. 

adjoining room, and upon my going to her bed- 
side, where she slept with my youngest sister, they 
both told me they had seen S. H. B. standing 
in the room. The time was about one o'clock. 
S. H. B. was in evening dress, they told me." 

The following case, while of the same general 
character, presents this remarkable difference : that 
the agent's mind was not at all directed to the 
real percipient, but only to the place where the 
percipient happened to be. It is from the note- 
book of Mr. S. H. B. who was also the agent. 

" On Friday, December ist, 1882, at 9 : 30 P. M., I 
went into a room alone and sat by the fireside, 
and endeavored so strongly to fix my mind upon 
the interior of a house at Kew (viz., Clarence 
Road), in which resided Miss V. and her two 
sisters, that I seemed to be actually in the 
house. 

" During this experiment I must have fallen into 
a mesmeric sleep, for, although I Vv^as conscious, I 
could not move my limbs. I did not seem to 
have lost the power of moving them, but I could 
not make the effort to do so. . . . At 10 P. M. I 
regained my normal state by an effort of the will 
and wrote down on a sheet of note-paper the fore- 
going statements. 



PHANTASM AT A DESIGNATED PLACE. 243 

"When I went to bed on this same night, 
I determined that I would be in the front bed- 
room of the above-mentioned house at 12 P.M., 
and remain there until I had made my pres- 
ence perceptible to the inmates of that room. 
On the next day, Saturday, I went to Kew to 
spend the evening, and met there a married sister 
of Miss V. (viz., Mrs. L.). This lady I had only 
met once before and that was at a ball, two years 
previous to the above date. We were both in 
fancy dress at the time, and as we did not ex- 
change more than half a dozen words, this lady 
would naturally have lost any vivid recollection 
of my appearance even if she had noticed it. 

** In the course of conversation (although I did 
not for a moment think of asking her any ques- 
tions on such a subject), she told me that on the 
previous night she had seen me distinctly on two 
occasions. She had spent the night at Clarence 
Road, and had slept in the front bedroom. At 
about half-past nine, she had seen me in the pas- 
sage going from one room to another, and at 12 
P. M., when she was wide-awake, she had seen me 
enter the bedroom and walk round to where she 
was lying and take her hair (which is very long), 
into my hand. She told me that the apparition 
took hold of her hand and gazed intently into it, 



244 TELEPATHY AND THE SUBLIMINAL SELF. 

whereupon she spoke, saying, 'You need not 
look at the lines for I have never had any- 
trouble.' 

" She then awoke her sister. Miss V., who was 
sleeping with her, and told her about it. After 
hearing this account I took the statement which 
I had written down the previous evening from 
my pocket and showed it to some of the persons 
present, who were much astonished, although 
incredulous. 

" I asked Mrs. L. if she was not dreaming at 
the time of the latter experience, but she stoutly 
denied, and stated that she had forgotten what I 
washke, but seeing me so distinctly she recognized 
me at once. At my request she wrote a brief 
account of her impressions and signed it." 

The following is the lady's statement : — 

"On Friday, December ist, 1882, I was on a 
visit to my sister, at 21 Clarence Road, Kew, and 
about 9 : 30 P. M. I was going from my bedroom 
to get some water from the bath-room, when I 
distinctly saw Mr. S. B. whom I had only seen 
once before, two years ago, walk before me past 
the bath-room, toward the bedroom at the end 
of the landing. 

" About 1 1 o'clock we retired for the night ; 
about 12 o'clock I was still awake, and the door 



THE STA TEMENT COR RO BORA TED. 245 

opened and Mr. S. B, came into the room and 

walked around to the bedside, and there stood 

with one foot on the ground, and the other knee 

resting on a chair. He then took my hair into 

his hand, after which he took my hand in his and 

looked very intently into the palm. *Ah,'I said 

(speaking to him), ' you need not look at the lines 

for I never had any trouble.' I then awoke my 

sister ; I was not nervous, but excited, and began 

to fear some serious illness would befall her, she 

being delicate at the time, but she is progressing 

more favorably now. 

- H. L." 

(Full name signed.) 

Miss Verity also corroborates this statement. 

The following is still another case of one mind 
acting upon another mind at a distance and at 
least in a most unusual way. Call it mind-pro- 
jection, making one's self visible at a distance, 
sending out the subliminal self — call it what we 
may — it is a glimpse of a phenomenon, rare in 
its occurrence, but which nevertheless has been 
observed a sufficient number of times to claim 
serious attention, and calm and candid considera- 
tion. The case is from Phantasms of the Livings 
and is furnished by " Mrs. Russell of Belgaum, 



2 46 TELEPATHY AND THE SUBLIMINAL SELF. 

India, wife of Mr. H. R. Russell, Educational 
Inspector in the Bombay Presidency/' It differs 
from those already cited in the fact that it is un- 
connected with either sleep or hypnotism, but 
both agent and percipient were awake and in a 
perfectly normal condition. 

Mrs. Russell writes : — 

"June 8th, 1886. 

** As desired I write down the following facts as 
well as I can recall them. I was living in Scotland, 
my mother and sisters in Germany. I lived with 
a very dear friend of mine, and went to Germany 
every year to see my people. It had so happened 
that I could not go home as usual for two years, 
when on a sudden I made up my mind to go and 
see my family. They knew nothing of my in- 
tention ; I had never gone in early spring before ; 
and I had no time to let them know by letter that 
I was going to set off. I did not like to send a 
telegram for fear of frightening my mother. The 
thought came to me to will with all my might to 
appear to one of my sisters, never mind which of 
them, in order to give them warning of my 
coming. I only thought most intensely for a few 
minutes of them, wishing with all my might to be 
seen by one of them — half present myself, in 



PHANTASM TRANSFERRED 300 MILES. 247 

vision, at home. I did not take more than ten 
minutes, I think. I started by the Leith steamer 
on Saturday night, end of April, 1859. ^ wished 
to appear at home about 6 o'clock P. M. that same 
Saturday. 

" I arrived at home at 6 o'clock on Tuesday 
morning following. I entered the house without 
any one seeing me, the hall being cleaned and the 
front door open. I walked into the room. One 
of my sisters stood with her back to the door ; she 
turned round when she heard the door opening, 
and on seeing me, stared at me, turning deadly 
pale, and letting what she had in her hand fall. I 
had been silent. Then I spoke and said, ' It is I. 
Why do you look so frightened ? ' When she 
answered, ^ I thought I saw you again as Stinchen 
(another sister) saw you on Saturday.' 

" When I inquired, she told me that on Saturday 
evening about 6 o'clock, my sister saw me quite 
clearly, entering the room in which she was, by one 
door, passing through it, opening the door of an- 
other room in which my mother v/as, and shutting 
the door behind me. She rushed after what she 
thought was I, calling out my name, and was 
quite stupefied when she did not find me with my 
mother. My mother could not understand my 
sister's excitement. They looked everywhere for 



2 48 TELEPA THY AXD THE SUBLIMINAL SELF. 

me, but of course did not find me. My mother 
was very miserable ; she thought I might be 
dying. 

" My sister who had seen me (i. e. my appari- 
tion) was out that morning when I arrived. I sat 
down on the stairs to watch, when she came in, 
the effect of my real appearance on her. When 
she looked up and saw me, sitting motionless, she 
called out my name and nearly fainted. 

" My sister had never seen anything unearthly 

either before that or afterwards ; and I have never 

made any such experiments since — nor will I, as the 

sister that saw me first when I really came home, 

had a very severe illness afterwards, caused by the 

shock to her nerves. 

J. M. Russell." 

Mrs. Russell's sister, in answer to her inquiry 
whether she remembered the incident, replied : 
"Of course I remember the matter as well as 
though it had happened to-day. Pray don't come 
appearing to me again ! " 

We started out with this proposition. Percep- 
tions — those of the class denominated hallucina- 
tions — may have their origin telepathically. In 
proof and illustration of that proposition we have 
so far presented a single class of cases, namely, 



VARIOUS CONDITIONS. 249 

Those where the hallucination was produced with 
will and purpose on the part of the agent. The 
cases present the following conditions: — 

(i) The agent being in a normal condition — 
the percipient hypnotized, the hypnotic condition 
having been produced at a distance of a hundred 
yards — and from a point from which the percipient 
could not be seen. 

(2) The agent in the hypnotic condition ; a 
definite hallucination strongly desired and decided 
upon beforehand was produced, the percipient 
being in a normal state. 

(3) The agent was in normal sleep. Hallucination 
decided upon before going to sleep was produced 
— the percipient awake and in normal condition. 

(4) Both agent and percipient awake and normal 
— hallucination produced at a distance of four 
hundred miles. In one case the phantasm is seen 
by two percipients, and in another case the place 
only where the phantasm should appear was 
strongly in the agent's mind ; and while the 
sisters who usually occupied that room might 
naturally be expected to be the percipients, as a 
matter of fact another person, a married sister 
who happened to be visiting them — a compar- 
ative stranger to the agent — was occupying the 
room and became the percipient. 



250 TELEPATHY AND THE SUBLIMINAL SELF. 

In each of these cases a definite purpose was 
formed by the agent to produce a certain halluci- 
nation or present a certain picture — generally a 
representation or phantasm of himself to the per- 
cipient. A picture or phantasm is seen by the 
intended percipient, and, on comparison, in each 
case it is found that it is the same phantasm that 
the agent had endeavored to project and make 
visible, and that it was perceived in the same place 
and at the same time that the agent had intended 
that it should be seen. 

Can these statements be received as true and 
reliable ? In reply we say, the evidence having 
been carefully examined is of such a character as 
to entitle it to belief, and the errors of observation 
and reporting are trifling, and not such as would 
injure the credibility of statements made regarding 
any event which was a matter of ordinary obser- 
vation ; moreover, these cases now have become 
so numerous and have been so carefully observed 
that they should be judged by the ordinary rules 
of evidence ; and by that rule they should be 
received. 

Having been received, how can they be ex- 
plained ? 

It may be answered : — 

(i) That these apparent sequences presenting 



EXPLANA TOR Y THEORIES. 25 1 

the relation of cause and effect are merely chance 
coincidences. But on carefully applying the doc- 
trine of chances, it is found that the probability 
that these coincidences of time and place, and 
the identity of the pictures presented and per- 
ceived, occurred by chance, would be only one in 
a number so large as to make it difidcult to repre- 
sent it in figures, and quite impossible for any 
mind to comprehend. And that such a coinci- 
dence should occur repeatedly in one person's 
experience is absolutely incredible. 

(2) The circumstances of distance and situation 
render it certain that the phantasms could not 
have been communicated or presented to the 
percipient through any of the usual channels 
of communication — by means of the physical 
organs of sense — even granting that they 
could be so transferred under favorable condi- 
tions. 

If, then, these cases must be received as authen- 
tic and true, and if they cannot be disposed of as 
chance coincidences, nor explained by any ordi- 
nary method or law of production or transmis- 
sion, then there must be some other method of 
mental interaction, and mental intercommunica- 
tion not usually recognized, by means of which 
these pictures or phantasms are produced or 



252 TELEPATHY AND THE SUBLIMINAL SELF. 

transferred, and this unusual method of mental 
interaction and intercommunication we designate 
telepathy. What the exact method is by which 
this unusual interaction is accomplished is not 
fully demonstrated, any " more than are the 
methods of the various interacting forces be- 
tween the sun and the planets or amongst the 
planets themselves. The hypothesis of a univer- 
sal or inter-stellar ether has never been demon- 
strated ; it is only a hypothesis framed because 
it is necessary in order to explain and support 
another undemonstrated theory, namely, the 
vibratory or wave theory of light. We do not 
know what the substance or force which we call 
attraction really is. Light has one method of 
movement and action, sound another, heat an- 
other, and electricity another, but most of the 
propositions concerning these methods of action 
are only theories or hypotheses having a greater 
or less degree of probability as the case may be. 
They were invented to account for certain actual 
and undeniable phenomena, and they are re- 
spected by all men of science or other persons 
having sufficient knowledge of these different 
subjects to entitle them to an opinion. The 
same thing is true of telepathy ; its facts must be 
known and its theories well considered by those 



REASONABLE HYPOTHESES. 253 

who assume to sit in judgment upon them ; and 
when known they are respected. The Copernican 
theory of the planetary movements was formu- 
lated three hundred and fifty years ago ; it was 
one hundred and fifty years later when Newton 
proposed the first rational theory regarding a 
force which might explain these motions. For 
this he was ridiculed and even ostracized by the 
self-constituted judges of his day. Telepathy 
has been the subject of careful study and experi- 
ment comparatively only a few years, and it can 
hardly, at this early date, expect better treatment 
at the hands of its critics. Its facts, however, re- 
main, and its explanatory theories are being duly 
considered. 

What, then, are the theories or hypotheses 
which may aid us in forming an idea of the man- 
ner in which a thought, a conception, or a mental 
picture may pass between two persons so situated 
that no communication could pass between them 
through the ordinary channels of communication 
— sight, hearing, or touch ? Let us suppose two 
persons A and B to be so situated. A is the 
agent or person having unusual abilit}^ to impress 
his own thought, or any conception or mental 
picture which he may form in his own mind, 
upon some other mind ; and B is the percipient 



254 TELEPATHY AND THE SUBLIMINAL SELF. 

or a person having unusual ability to receive or 
perceive such thoughts or mental pictures. Sup- 
pose these two people to be in the country and 
engaged in farming. Upon a certain morning A 
takes his axe and goes to the woods, half a mile 
distant, and is engaged in cutting brush and trees 
for the purpose of clearing the land, and B goes 
into the garden to care for the growing vegeta- 
bles. After an hour spent in these respective 
occupations, B becomes disquieted, even alarmed, 
oppressed with the feeling that some misfortune 
has happened and that A is needing his assist- 
ance. He is unable to continue his work and at 
once starts for the woods to seek for A. He 
finds that A has received a glancing blow from 
his axe which has deeply wounded his foot, dis- 
abled him, and put his life in immediate danger 
from hemorrhage. Here the thought of A in his 
extreme peril goes out intensely to B, desiring his 
presence ; and B, by some unusual perceptive 
power, takes cognizance of this intense thought 
and wish. This is telepathy. Again, suppose B 
hears a voice which he recognizes as A's calling 
his name and with a peculiar effect which B 
recognizes as distress or entreaty. Or, again, that 
B sees a picture or representation of A lying 
wounded and bleeding, still it is a telepathic 



VARIOUS HYPOTHESES EXAMINED. 255 

impulse from A and taken cognizance of by B 
which constitutes the communication between 
them, whatever the exact nature or method of 
the communication may be. 

The theories or hypotheses which have been 
put forward regarding the method by which this 
telepathic influence or impact is conveyed may 
be noted as follows : — 

(i) That of a vibratory medium, always pres- 
ent and analogous to the atmosphere for propa- 
gating sound or the universal ether for propa- 
gating light. 

(2) An effluence of some sort emanating from 
the persons concerned and acting as a medium 
for the time being. 

(3) A sixth sense. 

(4) A duplex personality or subliminal self. 
First, then, as regards the vibratory hypothesis ; 

it would demand a variety of media to convey 
separately something corresponding to the sense 
of sight, the sense of hearing, and to each of the 
other senses — touch, taste, and smell — as all these 
sensations have been telepathically transmitted, 
or else there must exist one single medium capa- 
ble of transmitting these many widely different 
methods of sensation separately, — either of which 
suppositions are, to say the least, bewildering. 



256 TELEPATHY AND THE SUBLIMINAL SELF. 

Such a medium must also possess a power of 
penetrating or acting through intervening obsta- 
cles, such as no medium with which we are ac- 
quainted possesses ; and, lastly, in addition to 
numerous apparently insurmountable difficulties 
and insufficiencies, there is no proof whatever 
that any such vibratory medium exists. 

Second. Regarding a vital effluence or some 
physical emanation or aura belonging to each in- 
dividual, and by means of which communication 
is possible between persons separated by too 
great a distance to permit communication through 
the ordinary channels ; it is at least conceivable 
that such an aura or personal atmosphere exists, 
and by some it is claimed to be demonstrated ; 
but admitting its existence, that it would be 
capable of fulfilling the numerous functions de- 
manded of it in the premises is doubtful. 

Third. That the telepathic intercommunication 
is accomplished by means of a sixth sense — a 
sort of compend of all the other senses, with 
added powers as regards distance and intervening 
obstacles — is a hypothesis which has been urged 
by some, and is at least intelligible ; but, while it 
presents an intelligible explanation of such facts 
as clairvoyance and the hearing of voices, there is 
a large class of facts, as we shall see, which utterly 



THEORY OF A SUBLIMINAL SELF. 257 

refuse to fall into line or be explained by this 
hypothesis. 

Fourth. The hypothesis of different strata of 
personality — or of a second or subliminal self — is 
the one which best fulfils the necessary conditions 
and also harmonizes the greatest number of facts 
when arranged with reference to this idea. There 
is also real, substantial evidence that such a 
second personality actually exists, some of the 
facts bearing upon this subject having been 
presented in former chapters. 

Those of my readers who have carefully followed 
the cases of unusual mental action there presented 
— cases of thought-transference, of clairvoyance, 
of remarkable mind-action in the hypnotic trance 
and in natural somnambulism — in well marked 
examples of double consciousness as shown in the 
cases of Felida X., of Alma Z., of Ansel Bourne, and 
the hypnotic subject, Madame B., in her various 
personalities of Leonie, Leontine, and Leonore, in 
automatic action as displayed in Planchette-writ- 
ing, in trance-speaking and in crystal-gazing, cannot 
have failed to observe, throughout the whole series, 
mind acting rationally and intelligently, quite 
independently of the ordinary consciousness, and 
even at times independently of the whole physical 
organization. We have considered the evidence 



258 TELEPA THY AND THE SUBLIMINAL SELF. 

which points to the fact, or at least to the theory 
of a subhminal self, or another personality, in 
some manner bound up in that complicated 
physical and mental mechanism which constitutes 
what we term an individual. We have seen that 
there are weighty proofs that such a secondary or 
subliminal, or, if you choose so to designate it, 
supranormal self, actually exists, and that it 
exhibits functions and powers far exceeding the 
functions and powers of the ordinary self. We 
have seen it expressing its own personal opinions, 
its own likes and dislikes, quite different and 
opposite to the opinions, likes, and dislikes of the 
ordinary self ; having its own separate series of 
remembered actions or chain of memories, its 
own antecedent history, and its separate present 
interests ; and especially performing actions alto- 
gether beyond the powers of the ordinary self. 
We have seen it going out to great distances, see- 
ing and describing scenes and events there taking 
place — for example, Swedenborg at Gottenburg 
witnessing the conflagration at Stockholm ; 
Dr. Gerault's clairvoyant maid-servant, Marie, in 
France, seeing the sad death of her neighbor's son, 
Limoges, the ropemaker, while serving in the 
Crimea ; and also the serious illness of Dr. Gerault's 
military friend in Algiers. Fitzgerald, at Bruns- 



FACULTIES OF THE SUBLIMINAL SELF. 259 

wick, Me., seeing and describing the Fall River 
fire three hundred miles away, and Mrs. Porter, at 
Bridgeport, Conn., describing the burning of the 
steamer Henry Clay while it was occurring on the 
Hudson River near the village of Yonkers. We 
have seen this same subliminal self in the case of 
Mr. Stead, going out and acquiring desired knowl- 
edge relating to the location, occupation, and 
needs of persons from whom he desired such in- 
formation, and bringing it back and reporting it 
by means of automatic writing. Again, we have 
seen this subliminal self in the case of Mrs. Newn- 
ham, perceiving the silently written and some- 
times even the unwritten questions of her hus- 
band, and automatically writing the answers by 
means of Planchette ; and we have seen it pro- 
ducing hallucinations of hearing as In the case of 
Leonore causing Leontine to hear a voice reprov- 
ing her for her flippancy. 

A remarkable series of facts are here pointed 
out, facts some of which are akin to those which 
have for ages been lying about In the lumber 
rooms of history or in out-of-the-way corners of 
men's memories, neglected and discredited, be- 
cause unexplained, unaccounted for, forming no 
part of any recognized system of mental action, 
and some only recently observed and even now 



26o TELEPATHY AND THE SUBLIMINAL SELF. 

looked at askance for the same reason. They 
have remained a mass of undigested and un- 
arranged facts, without system, without any 
ascertained relation to each other, pointing to no 
definite principle, defined by no definite law. It 
is only within the past decade that these facts 
have been studied with reference to the action of 
a subliminal self. 

But this new and startling idea being once 
admitted and brought to the front, it is found 
that not only in the whole series of observed 
automatic actions in the somnambulism of the 
hypnotic state, and that of ordinary sleep, are 
the organs of the unconscious body made use of 
by this subconscious or subliminal self, but also 
in dreams, in reverie, in moments of abstraction, 
of strong emotion or mental excitement, and even 
in the case of some peculiarly susceptible persons 
in the ordinary waking condition, this subliminal 
self can greatly influence and sometimes take 
entire control of the action of the body. 

It will be seen then, how wide and important is 
the range of phenomena in which the subliminal 
self appears as an active agent, impressing its own 
special knowledge, however acquired, its ideas, 
pictures, and images upon the primary self, and 
causing them to be perceived, remembered, and 



KEY TO THE PHENOMENA. 261 

expressed by it ; and with this unusual power in 
view, evidently it is in this direction also that we 
must look for the key to that still more remark- 
able series of phenomena which are known as 
phantasms or apparitions. 



CHAPTER XL 

PHANTASMS CONTINUED. 

So far a single class of cases has been brought for- 
ward in proof and illustration of our proposition, 
that sensation may be produced telepathically^ 
namely, the voluntary class; as for instance, 
when it has been resolved beforehand and 
strongly desired and willed that a representation 
or apparition of one's self should be seen and 
recognized by another person at a specified time 
and place, and it has been so recognized. This 
class contains fewer recorded cases, but, on the 
other hand, they are specially valuable, because 
the element of error arising from chance coinci- 
dence is almost entirely excluded. In addition 
to these voluntary or prearranged cases there is, 
however, another and much larger class of cases 
which occur spontaneously, unthought of, and un- 
expected by the percipient as well as by the 
agent. 

Passing over cases of an indefinite or undefined 
262 



VERIDICAL DREAMS. 263 

sense of danger or peril — or of a " presence " — we 
will proceed to notice some well authenticated 
cases of spontaneous impressions of a definite 
character made upon the senses, and especially 
upon the sense of sight. This definite impression 
may be made upon the senses of the percipient 
in dreams — especially those of a veridical char- 
acter, where there is a definite reality correspond- 
ing in time and circumstances. 

It may also be made when the percipient is in 
a condition of reverie, between sleeping and 
waking, and even when wide awake and in a 
perfectly normal condition. 

This definite impression of seeing or hearing 
may be made upon a single percipient, or it may 
be perceived by several persons at once. 

The following may serve as examples of veridi- 
cal dreams. They were carefully examined by 
the editors of Phantasms of the Living, and 
especially by Mr. Gurney. Only initials in the 
first case were given for publication. 

" In the year 1857, I had a brother in the very 
centre of the Indian Mutiny. I had been ill in 
the spring and taken from my lessons in the 
school-room, consequently, I heard more of 
what was going on from the newspapers than a 
girl of thirteen ordinarily would in those days. 



264 TELE PA THY AND THE SUBLIMINAL SELF. 

We were in the habit of hearing regularly from 
my brother, but in June and July of that year no 
letters came, and what arrived in August proved 
to have been written quite early in the spring, 
and were full of disturbances around his sta- 
tion. 

" He was in the service of the East India Com- 
pany — an officer in the 8th Native Infantry. I 
was always devoted to him, and I grieved and 
fretted far more than any of my elders knew at 
his danger. I cannot say that I dreamt con- 
stantly of him, but when I did the impressions 
were very vivid and abiding. 

" On one occasion his personal appearance was 
being discussed and I remarked, ' He is not like 
that now, he has no beard nor whiskers ; * and 
when asked why I said such a thing, I replied, 
' I know it, for I have seen him in my dreams ; ' 
and this brought a severe reprimand from my 
governess, who never allowed * such nonsense ' to 
be talked of. 

"On the morning of the 25th of September, 
quite early, I awoke from a dream, to find my 
sister holding me and much alarmed. I had 
screamed and struggled, crying out, * Is he really 
dead ? ' When I fully awoke, I felt a burning 
sensation in my head. I could not speak for a 



SHOT ON HIS WAY TO LUC KNOW, 265 

moment or two ; I knew my sister was there, but 
I neither saw nor felt her. 

*' In about a minute, during which she said my 
eyes were staring beyond her, I ceased struggling 
cried out, * Harry's dead, they have shot him,' 
and fainted. When I recovered I found my 
sister had been sent away, and an aunt who had 
always looked after me, w^as sitting by my bed. 

** In order to soothe my excitement, she allowed 
me to tell my dream, trying all the time to per- 
suade me to regard it as a natural consequence of 
my anxiety. 

" When, in my narration, I said he was riding 
with another officer and mounted soldiers be- 
hind them, she exclaimed ' My dear, that shows 
you it is only a dream, for your brother is in an 
infantry, not a cavalry, regiment.' 

'■'■ Nothing, however, shook my feeling that I 
had seen a reality ; and she was so much struck 
by my persistence that she privately made notes 
of the dates and of the incidents, even to the 
minutest details of my dream, and then for a few 
days the matter dropped, but I felt the truth 
was coming nearer and nearer to all. In a short 
time the news came in the papers : — * Shot down 
on the morning of the 25th, when on his way to 
Lucknow.' A few days later came one of his 



266 TELEPATHY AND THE SUBLIMINAL SELF. 

missing letters, telling how his own regiment had 
mutinied, and that he had been transferred to a 
command in the I2th Irregular Cavalry, bound 
to join Havelock's force. in the relief of Luck- 
now. 

'' Some eight years after, the officer who was 
riding by him when he fell, Captain or Major 
Grant, visited us and when, in compliance with 
my aunt's request, he detailed the incidents of 
that sad hour, his narration tallied (even to the 
description of buildings on their left) with the 
notes she had taken the morning of my dream. 
I should also add that we heard my brother had 
made the alteration in his beard and whiskers, just 
about the time that I had spoken of him as wear- 
ing them differently." 

" L. A. W." 

The next case which I will present is from Dr. 
A. K. Young, F. R. C. S. I., of the Terrace, 
IMonaghan, Ireland. 

One Monday night, in December, 1836, Dr. 
Young had the following dream, or, as he would 
prefer to call it, revelation. He found himself 
suddenly at the gate of Major N. M.'s avenue, 
many miles from his home. Close to him was a 
group of persons, one of them a woman with a 
basket on her arm, the rest men, four of whom 



A STRAxYGE EXPERIENCE. 267 

were tenants of his own, while the others were 
unknown to him. Some of the strangers seemed 
to be murderously assaulting H. W., one of his 
tenants, and he interfered. He goes on to say: 

" I struck violently at the man on my left and 
then with greater violence at the man's face to 
my right. Finding to my surprise that I did not 
knock him down either, I struck again and again 
with all the violence of a man frenzied at the 
sight of my poor friend's murder. To my great 
amazement I saw that my arms, although visible 
to my eye, were without substance ; and the bodies 
of the men I struck at and my own came close 
together after each blow through the shadowy 
arms I struck Avith. My blows were delivered 
with more extreme violence than I ever before 
exerted ; but I became painfully convinced of my 
incompetency. I have no consciousness of what 
happened after this feeling of unsubstantiality 
came upon me." 

Next morning, Dr. Young experienced the stiff- 
ness and soreness of violent bodily exercise and 
was informed by his wife that in the course of the 
night he had much alarmed her by striking out 
again and again with his arms in a terrific manner, 
" as if fighting for his life." He in turn informed 
her of his dream and begged her to remember the 



2 68 TELEPATHY AND THE SUBLIMINAL SELF. 

names of the actors in it who were known to 
him. 

On the morning of the following day, Wednes- 
day, he received a letter from his agent, who re- 
sided in the town close to the scene of his dream, 
informing him that his tenant, H. W., had been 
found on Tuesday morning at Major N. M.'s gate 
speechless and apparently dying from a fracture 
of the skull, and that there was no trace of the 
murderers. That night Dr. Young started for the 
town and arrived there on Thursday morning. 
On his way to a meeting of the magistrates he 
met the senior magistrate of that part of the coun- 
try and requested him to give orders for the 
arrest of the three men whom, besides H. W., he 
had recognized in his dream, and to have them 
examined separately. This was done. The three 
men gave identical accounts of the occurrence, 
and all named the woman who was with them. 
She was then arrested and gave precisely similar 
testimony. 

They said that between eleven and twelve on 
Monday night they had been walking homeward, 
all together along the road, when they were over- 
taken by three strangers, two of whom savagely 
assaulted H. W., while the other prevented his 
friends from interfering. The man H, W. did 



BORDERLAXD CASES. 269 

not die, and no clue was ever found to the 
assassins. 

The Bishop of Clogher writes confirmatory of 
Dr. Young's account. 

" Borderland cases " are those in which the per- 
cipient, though seeming to himself to be awake, 
may be in bed, has perhaps been asleep, and is in 
that condition between sleeping and waking 
known as reverie and which we have seen is favor- 
able for the action of the subliminal self, either as 
agent or percipient. 

Passing, then, from dreams to " Borderland 
cases," the first example under this head which I 
will present is from Mrs. Richardson, of Combe 
Down, Bath, England. 

She writes : — 

"August 26th, 1882. 

" On September 9th, 1848, at the Siege of Mool- 
tan, my husband, Major-General Richardson, C. B., 
then adjutant of his regiment, was most severely 
wounded, and supposing himself dying, asked one 
of the officers with him to take the ring off his 
finger and send it to his wife, who at that time 
was fully one hundred and fifty m.iles distant, at 
Ferozepore. On the night of September 9th, 
1848, I was lying in my bed between sleeping 
and -waking, when I distinctly saw my husband 



270 TELEPATHY AND THE SUBLIMINAL SELF. 

being carried off the field seriously wounded, and 
heard his voice saying, * Take this ring off my 
finger and send It to my wife.' 

" All the next day I could not get the sight nor 
the voice out of my mind. In due time I heard 
of Gen. Richardson having been severely wounded 
in the assault on Mooltan. He survived, how- 
ever, and is still living. It was not for some time 
after the siege that I heard from Colonel L., the 
ofi(icer who helped to carry Gen. Richardson off 
the field, that the request as to the ring was 
actually made to him, just as I had heard it at 
Ferozepore at that very time. 

" M. A. Richardson." 

The following questions were addressed to Gen. 
Richardson. 

1. *' Does Gen. Richardson remember saying, 
when he was wounded at Mooltan, * Take this 
ring off my finger and send it to my wife,' or 
words to that effect ? " 

Ans. " Most distinctly ; I made the request to 
my commanding officer, Major E. S. Lloyd, who 
was supporting me while my man was gone for 
assistance." 

2. " Can you remember the time of the in- 
cident? " 



MISS HOSMER'S EXPERIENCE. 271 

Ans. " So far as my memory serves me, I was 
wounded about nine p. M., on Sunday, the 9th 
September, 1848." 

3. " Had Gen. Richardson, before he left home, 
promised or said anything to Mrs. R. as to send- 
ing his ring to her in case he should be wounded ? " 

Ans. ** To the best of my recollection, never. 
Nor had I any kind of presentiment on the sub- 
ject. I naturally felt that with such a fire as we 
were exposed to, I might get hurt." 

The next case is from Miss Hosmer, the cele- 
brated sculptor. It was written out by Miss 
Balfour, from the account given by Lydia Maria 
Child, and corrected by Miss Hosmer, July 15th, 
1885. 

** An Italian girl named Rosa was in my em- 
ploy for some time, but was finally obliged to 
return home to her sister on account of confirmed 
ill-health. When I took my customary exercise 
on horseback, I frequently called to see her. On 
one of these occasions I called about six o'clock 
P. M., and found her brighter than I had seen her 
for some time past. I had long relinquished hopes 
of her recovery, but there was nothing in her ap- 
pearance that gave me the impression of imme- 
diate danger. I left her with the expectation of 
calling to see her again many times. She ex- 



2^2 TELEPATHY AND THE SUBLIMINAL SELF. 

pressed a wish to have a bottle of a certain kind 
of wine, which I promised to bring her myself 
next morning. 

" During the remainder of the evening I do not 
recollect that Rosa was in my thoughts after I 
parted with her. I retired to rest in good health 
and in a quiet frame of mind. But I woke from 
a sound sleep with an oppressive feeling that 
some one was in the room. 

" I reflected that no one could get in except my 
maid, who had the key to one of the two doors of 
my room — both of which doors were locked. I 
was able dimly to distinguish the furniture in the 
room. My bed was in the middle of the room 
with a screen around the foot of it. Thinking 
some one might be behind the screen I said, 

* Who's there ? ' but got no answer. Just then 
the clock in the adjacent room struck five ; and at 
that moment I saw the figure of Rosa standing 
by my bedside ; and in some way, though I could 
not venture to say it was through the medium of 
speech, the impression was conveyed to me from 
her of these words : * Adesso son felice, son con- 
tenta.' And with that the figure vanished. 

" At the breakfast table I said to the friend 
who shared the apartment with me, * Rosa is dead.' 

* What do you mean by that ? ' she inquired ; ' you 



LORD BROUGHAM'S VISION. 273 

told me she seemed better yesterday.' I related 

the occurrence of the morning and told her I had 

a strong impression Rosa was dead. She laughed 

and said I had dreamed it all. I assured her I 

was thoroughly awake. She continued to jest on 

the subject and slightly annoyed me by her 

persistence in believing it a dream when I was 

perfectly sure of having been wide awake. To 

settle the question I summoned a messenger, and 

sent him to inquire how Rosa did. He returned 

with the answer that she died that morning at 

five o'clock. 

*'H. G. HOSMER." 

I will also introduce here as a " Borderland 
case " an extract from The Life and Times of Lord 
Brougham^ written by himself {iZyi), the extract 
being an entry in his journal during a journey in 
Sweden in December, 1799. It is as follows : — 

*' We set out for Gothenburg [apparently on 

December i8th], determined to make for Norway. 

About one in the morning, arriving at a decent inn, 

we decided to stop over night. Tired with the 

cold of yesterday, I was glad to take advantage 

of a hot bath before I turned in, and here a 

most remarkable thing happened to me — so 

remarkable that I must tell the story from the 

beginning. 
18 



2 74 TEL EPA THY AND THE SUBLIMINAL SELF. 

" After I left the High School, I went with G., 
my most intimate friend, to attend the classes at 
the University. There was no divinity class, but 
we frequently in our walks discussed and spec- 
ulated upon many grave subjects — among others, 
on the immortality of the soul, and a future state. 
This question, and the possibility, I will not say 
of ghosts walking, but of the dead appearing to 
the living, were subjects of much speculation ; 
and we actually committed the folly of drawing 
up an agreement written with our blood, to the 
effect that which ever of us died first should 
appear to the other, and thus solve any doubts 
we had entertained of the Mife after death.* 
After we had finished our classes at college, G. 
went to India, having got an appointment there 
in the Civil Service. 

" He seldom wrote to me, and after the lapse of 
a few years I had almost forgotten him ; more- 
over, his family having little connection with 
Edinburgh, I seldom saw or heard anything of 
them, or of him through them, so that all his 
school-boy intimacy had died out, and I had 
nearly forgotten his existence. I had taken, as I 
have said, a warm bath, and while lying in it and 
enjoying the comfort of the heat after the late 
freezing I had undergone, I turned my head 



BIS EX PLANA TION. 275 

round, looking towards the chair on which I had 
deposited my clothes, as I was about to get out 
of the bath. On the chair sat G, looking calmly 
at me. 

" How I got out of the bath I know not, but 
on recovering my senses I found myself sprawling 
on the floor. The apparition, or whatever it was 
that had taken the likeness of G., had disappeared. 

" This vision produced such a shock that I had 
no inclination to talk about it even to Stewart ; 
but the impression it made upon me was too vivid 
to be easily forgotten ; and so strongly was I 
affected by it that I have here written down the 
whole history, with the date, 19th December, and 
all the particulars, as they are now fresh before 
me. 

" No doubt I had fallen asleep ; and that the 
appearance presented so distinctly to my eyes was 
a dream, I cannot for a moment doubt ; yet for 
years I had had no communication with G., nor 
had there been anything to recall him to my 
recollection ; nothing had taken place during our 
Swedish travels either connected with G. or with 
India, or with anything relating to him, or to any 
member of his family. I could not discharge from 
my mind the impression that G. must have died, 
and that his appearance to me was to be received 



276 TELEPATHY AND THE SUBLIMINAL SELF. 

as a proof of a future state ; yet all the while I 
felt convinced that the whole was a dream ; and 
so painfully vivid, so unfading the impression, that 
I could not bring myself to talk of it or make the 
slightest allusion to it." 

In October, 1862, Lord Brougham added as a 
postscript : — 

" I have just been copying out from my journal 
the account of this strange dream : Certissima 
mortis imago ! And now to finish the story, be- 
gun about sixty years ago. Soon after my return 
to Edinburgh, there arrived a letter from India, 
announcing G.'s death, and stating that he had 
died on the 19th of December! 

" Singular coincidence ! Yet, when one reflects 
on the vast number of dreams which night after 
night pass through our brains, the number of 
coincidences between the vision and the event 
are perhaps fewer and less remarkable than a fair 
calculation of chances would warrant us to expect. 
Nor is it surprising, considering the variety of 
thoughts in sleep, and that they all bear some 
analogy to the affairs of life, that a dream should 
sometimes coincide with a contemporaneous, or 
even with a future, event. This is not much 
more wonderful than that a person whom we 
have had no reason to expect should appear to 



TWO NOTABLE PERCIPIENTS. 277 

US at the very moment we have been thinking or 
speaking of him. So common is this, that it has 
for ages grown into the proverb, ' Speak of the 
devil/ I believe every such seeming miracle is, 
like every ghost story, capable of explanation.'* 

I have introduced in full Lord Brougham's 
statement of the case and his method of reason- 
ing upon it ; let us for a moment analyze each. 

I have also introduced Harriet Hosmer's 
experience along with that of Lord Brougham, 
because they are both notable persons whose 
evidence regarding matters of fact could not be 
impugned, and whose strength of character, 
honesty of purpose, and knowledge of affairs 
enables us to throw out of account any idea of 
imposture or self-deception in either case. These 
cases, then, must be received as having actually 
occurred as related ; and being so received they 
render all the more credible other cases reported 
by persons less well known. 

What was the character of the apparitions or 
appearances which were presented ; were they, 
properly speaking, dreams? In Miss Hosmer's 
statement she stoutly affirms that she was awake, 
and she gives good reasons for so believing, 
namely, before she saw anything, but only felt 
that some one was in the room, she awoke from a 



278 TELEPATHY AND THE SUBLIMINAL SELF. 

sound sleep ; she reasoned with herself regarding 
the possibility of any one getting into the room ; 
she called out : '' Who's there ? " She saw the 
furniture, heard the clock strike, and counted 
five ; and in another account which I also have, 
she heard the familiar noises about the house of 
servants at their usual work, and she resolved to 
get up. All this before she saw anything unus- 
ual ; then turning her head she saw Rosa. Clearly 
this was not a dream but a vision occurring pos- 
sibly in a condition of reverie. 

Taking up Lord Brougham's case : in simply 
recording the facts in his diary he speaks of his 
experience as a vision and the idea that it was a 
dream was evidently an after-thought. He was 
enjoying the heat ; he was about to get out of the 
bath; he ttcrjied h.\s head. He describes the sen- 
sations and actions of a man who is awake, or 
certainly not in a condition to have dreams dis- 
connected with his actual surroundings. After 
all this, looking toward the chair upon which he 
had deposited his clothes — still a part of his sur- 
roundings, of which he was perfectly conscious — 
he saw G. on the chair looking calmly at him. 

Now to have dreamt of G., his old school-fellow 
and friend, looking calmly at him, would not have 
been anything shocking nor even surprising ; it 



LORD BROUGHAM'S VIEW CRITICISED, 279 

would not have been even uncommon among dreams 
— it would have been nothing out of the ordinary- 
course of nature. Dreams seldom shock or even 
surprise us — surely not unless there is something 
intrinsically shocking represented by them ; but 
when we see the phantasm of a person whom we 
know cannot be there — that is unusual, that is 
not in the ordinary course of nature, as we are 
accustomed to observe nature, and it surprises us, 
shocks us, perhaps frightens us; but it does so 
because we are awake and can reason about it 
and compare its strangeness with the usual order 
of things. 

Lord Brougham was awake, he did so reason, 
and was accordingly shocked. 

So vivid was the apparition that he tumbled 
out of the bath and fainted. It is only some time 
after this, when writing up his diary, that he has 
no doubt that he had fallen asleep. Preconceived 
theories about apparitions now come up in his 
mind and get him into trouble ; he must explain 
his vision. 

Now for the explanation. Lord Brougham 
finds, on returning to Scotland, that his former 
friend is dead, and that the time of his death cor- 
responded with the time at which he had seen 
his apparition in Sweden, December 19th. 



28o TELEPATHY AND THE SUBLIMINAL SELF. 

" Singular coincidence ! " That is Lord Broug- 
ham's explanation ; and that is the usual explana- 
tion ; but it is ill-considered — it is weak — it does 
not cover the ground. 

Lord Brougham had but two theories from 
which to choose : namely, Chance and Super- 
naturalism ; and of the two horns of the dilemma 
he chose the easier one. 

Let us, however, place ourselves, for the moment, 
on his ground, namely, that (i) It was a dream ; 
and (2) dreams are so numerous that it is not 
surprising that some of them coincide with 
contemporaneous events. 

Evidently the more numerous the coincidences, 
or the dreams which correspond to contempo- 
raneous events, the weaker becomes the theory 
of chance coincidences. Supposing, then. Lord 
Brougham's case to have been unique, that not 
another similar case was known to have occurred, 
then we should have no particular hesitation in 
assigning it to the category of chance coinci- 
dences ; but even then it would be out of the 
order of usual coincidences both in interest and 
the number of separate points involved ; it would 
excite special interest, but the reference of it to 
chance would not be considered unreasonable: if, 
however, three or four such cases had been re- 



COINCIDENCE THEORY ABSURD. 281 

ported and discussed in a generation, thoughtful 
people would begin to inquire if there might not 
be some relation of sequence, or possibly of cause 
and effect ; but when hundreds of cases have 
been reported, because they have been system- 
atically sought for — veridical dreams connected 
with the moment of the death of the agent, with 
fainting, with trance, with moments of supreme 
excitement, or of extreme danger, so many dif- 
ferent conditions in which by careful observation 
it is found that such hallucinations and symbols 
relating to actual contemporaneous occurrences 
originate and are telepathically transmitted — the 
matter is then quite removed from the category 
of chance coincidences, and any attempt to force 
these cases there to-day denotes either ignorance 
of established facts or inability to appreciate 
logical reasoning or even mathematical demon- 
stration. This is all upon the supposition that 
the case in question was a dream. On the other 
hand, now place the case where it really belongs 
as a waking or Borderland vision — an event in a 
class a hundred-fold less numerous than dreams — 
and in which class corresponding events are at 
least tenfold more numerous^ and we see how con- 
spicuously weak is the coincidence theory. 

Neither need the other horn of the dilemma, 



282 TELEPATHY AND THE SUBLIMINAL SELF. 

namely, Supernaturalism, any longer be taken. 
A newly recognized method of mental interaction 
is gradually coming into view ; a new principle 
and law in psychology is being established ; and 
under this law the erratic and discredited facts of 
history as well as the facts of present observation 
and experiment are falling into line and becom- 
ing intelligible. 

The new principle or law, as we have seen, is 
this : Perceptions, of the class which have usually 
been known as hallucinations, may be originated 
and transferred telepathically ; in other words, 
there is a subliminal self, which, under various 
conditions on the part of either agent or per- 
cipient, or both, may come to the surface and act, 
impressing the sensitive percipient through the 
senses, by dreams, visions, and apparitions, as well 
as through hallucinations of hearing and touch. 

Returning to our well considered cases illus- 
trating some of these various conditions : having 
presented examples of veridical or truth-telling 
dreams, and of waking or borderland visions also 
corresponding to actual events taking place at the 
same time, I will next present cases where the 
percipient was undoubtedly awake and in a normal 
condition. The following case is reported on the 
authority of Surgeon Harris of the Royal Artil- 



THE CHILD'S VISION. 283 

lery, who, with his two daughters, was a witness 
of the occurrence : 

" A party of children, sons and daughters of 
the officers of artillery stationed at Woolwich, 
were playing in the garden. Suddenly a little 
girl screamed, and stood staring with an aspect of 
terror at a willow tree standing in the grounds. 
Her companions gathered round, asking what 
ailed her. * Oh ! ' said she, * there — there. Don't 
you see ? There's papa lying on the ground, and 
the blood running from a big wound.* All assured 
her that they could see nothing of the kind. But 
she persisted, describing the wound and the posi- 
tion of the body, still expressing surprise that 
they did not see v/hat she so plainly saw. Two 
of her companions were daughters of one of the 
surgeons of the regiment, whose house adjoined 
the garden. They called their father, who at once 
came to the spot. He found the child in a state 
of extreme terror and agony, took her into his 
house, assured her it was only a fancy, and having 
given her restoratives sent her home. The inci- 
dent was treated by all as what the doctor 
had called it, a fancy, and no more was thought 
of it. News from India, where the child's father 
was stationed, was in those days slow in coming, 
but the arrival of the mail in due course brought 



284 TELEPA THY AND THE SUBLIMINAL SELF. 

the information that the father of the child had 
been killed by a shot, and died under a tree. 
Making allowances for difference in time, it was 
found to have been about the moment when the 
daughter had the vision at Woolwich." 

The next case is from Mr. Francis Dart Fenton, 
formerly in the native department of the Govern- 
ment, Auckland, New Zealand. In 1852, when 
the incident occurred, Mr. Fenton was engaged 
in forming a settlement on the banks of the 
Waikato. 

He writes : — 

"March 25th, i860. 

" Two sawyers, Frank Philps and Jack Mul- 
holland, were engaged cutting timber for the Rev. 
R. Maunsell, at the mouth of the Awaroa Creek, 
a very lonely place, a vast swamp, no people with- 
in miles of them. As usual, they had a Maori 
with them to assist in felling trees. He came 
from Tihorewam, a village on the other side of 
the river, about six miles off. As Frank and the 
native were cross-cutting a tree, the native stopped 
suddenly and said, * What are you come for ? ' 
looking in the direction of Frank. Frank replied, 
' What do you mean ? ' He said, * I am not 
speaking to you ; I am speaking to my brother.' 
Frank said, ' Where is he ? ' The native replied, 



THE MAORI WAS RIGHT. 285 

* Behind you. What do you want ? ' (to the 
other Maori). Frank looked round and saw 
nobody ; the native no longer saw any one, but 
laid down the saw and said, * I shall go across the 
river ; my brother is dead.' Frank laughed at 
him, and reminded him that he had left him quite 
well on Sunday (five days before), and there had 
been no communication since. The Maori spoke 
no more, but got into his canoe and pulled across. 
When he arrived at the landing-place, he met 
people coming to fetch him. His brother had 
just died. I knew him well." 

In answer to inquiries as to his authority for 
this narrative, Mr. Fenton writes the editors of 
Phantasms of the Living : — 

'' December i8th, 1883. 

" I knew all the parties well, and it is quite 

true. Incidents of this sort are not infrequent 

among the Maoris. 

" F. D. Fenton, 

" Late Chief Judge, Native Law Court of New 

Zealand." 

The following case was first published in the 
Spiritual Magazine in 1861, by Robert H. Collyer, 
M. D., F. C. S. 

Although published in a spiritual publication, 
Dr. Collyer states that he himself is not a believer 



286 TELEPATHY AND THE SUBLIMINAL SELF. 

in spiritualism, but, on the contrary, is a material- 
ist and has been for forty years. 

He writes from Beta House, 8 Alpha Road, St. 
John's Wood, N. W. :— 

*' April 15th, 1861. 

" On January 3d, 1856, my brother Joseph 
being in command of the steamer Alice ^ on the 
Mississippi, just above New Orleans, she came 
in collision with another steamer. The concus- 
sion caused the flagstaff or pole to fall with great 
violence, which coming in contact with my 
brother's head, actually divided the skull, causing 
of necessity instant death. In October, 1857, 
I visited the United States. When at my father's 
residence, Camden, Nev/ Jersey, the melancholy 
death of my brother became the subject of con- 
versation, and my mother narrated to me that at 
the very time of the accident the apparition of 
my brother Joseph was presented to her. This 
fact was corroborated by my father and four 
sisters. Camden, N. J., is distant from the scene 
of the accident, in a direct line, over one thousand 
miles. My mother mentioned the fact of the ap- 
parition on the morning of the 4th of January to 
my father and sisters ; nor was it until the i6th, 
or thirteen days after, that a letter was received 
confirming in every particular the extraordinary 



SEEN A THOUSAND MILES AWAY. 287 

visitation. It will be important to mention that 
my brother William and his wife lived near the 
locality of the dreadful accident, and are now 
living in Philadelphia ; they have also corrobo- 
rated to me the details of the impression produced 
upon my mother." 

Dr. Collyer then quotes a letter from his mother 
which contains the following sentences : — 

" Camden, N. J., United States, 
" March 27th, 1861. 
" My. beloved Son, — On the 3d of January, 
1856, I did not feel well and retired early to bed. 
Some time after I felt uneasy and sat up in bed ; I 
looked around the room, and to my utter amaze- 
ment, saw Joseph standing at the door looking at 
me with great earnestness ; his head was bandaged 
up, a dirty night-cap on, and a dirty white garment, 
something like a surplice. H e was much disfigured 
about the eyes and face. It made me quite un- 
comfortable the rest of the night. The next morn- 
ing Maiy came into my room early. I told her I 
was sure I was going to have bad news from 
Joseph. I told all the family at the breakfast 
table. They replied, ' It was only a dream and 
nonsense ; ' but that did not change my opinion. 
It preyed on my mind, and on the i6th of January 
I received the news of his death ; and singular to 



288 TELEPATHY AND THE SUBLIMINAL SELF. 

say both William and his wife, who were there, say 
that he was exactly attired as I saw him. 
" Your ever affectionate mother, 

"Anne E. Collyer." 

In reply to questions, Dr Collyer wrote : " My 
father, who was a scientific man, calculated the 
difference of longitude between Camden and 
New Orleans and found that the mental impression 
was at the exact time of my brother's death. . . . 

" In the published account I omitted to state 
that my brother Joseph, prior to his death, had 
retired for the night in his berth ; his vessel was 
moored alongside the levee, at the time of the 
collision by another steamer coming down the 
Mississippi. Of course my brother was in his 
nightgown. He ran on deck on being called and 
informed that a steamer was in close proximity to 
his own. These circumstances were communicated 
to me by my brother William, who was on the 
spot at the time of the accident." 

In addition to these accounts, Mr. Podmore 
says : — 

" I called upon Dr. Collyer on March 25th, 1884. 
He told me that he received a full account of the 
story verbally from his father, mother, and brother 
in 1857. • • • He was quite certain of the precise 
coincidence of time." 



AT A MOMENT OF PERIL. 289 

A sister also writes corroborating all the main 
statements. 

Other senses besides that of sight may receive 
the telepathic impression. In the following cases 
the sense of hearing was so impressed. The first 
account is from Commander T. W. Aylesbury, 
late of the Indian Navy. It is from Mr. Gurney's 
collection in Phantasms of the Living. 

" The writer when thirteen years of age was cap- 
sized in a boat when landing on the Island of Bally, 
east of Java, and was nearly drowned. On coming 
to the surface after being repeatedly submerged, 
the boy called out for his mother. This amused the 
boat's crew, who spoke of it afterwards and jeered 
him a good deal about it. Months after, on arrival 
in England, the boy went to his home, and while 
telling his mother of his narrow escape he said, 
' While I was under the water I saw you all sitting 
in this room ; you were working on something 
white. I saw you all — mother, Emily, Eliza, and 
Ellen.' His mother at once said, * Why, yes, and 
I heard you cry out for me, and I sent Emily to 
look out of the window, for I remarked that some- 
thing had happened to that poor boy.' The time, 
owing to the difference in longitude, corresponded 
with the time when the voice was heard." 

Commander Aylesbury adds in another letter : 
^9 



290 TELEPATHY AND THE SUBLIMINAL SELF. 

" I saw their features (my mother's and sisters'), 
the room and the furniture, and particularly the 
old-fashioned Venetian blinds. My eldest sister 
was seated next to my mother." 

The following is an extract from a letter written 
to Commander Aylesbury by one of his sisters and 
forwarded to Mr. Gurney, in 1883: — 

" I distinctly remember the incident you men- 
tion in your letter (the voice caUing 'Mother'); 
it made such an impression upon my mind I shall 
never forget it. We were all sitting quietly at 
work one evening ; it was about nine o'clock. I 
think it must have been late in the summer, as we 
had left the street door open. We first heard a 
faint cry of ' Mother ' ; we all looked up and said 
to one another, ' Did you hear that ? some one 
cried out " Mother." ' We had scarcely finished 
speaking when the voice again called ' Mother * 
twice in quick succession, the last cry a frightened, 
agonizing cry. We all started up and mother 
said to me, ' Go to the door and see what is the 
matter.' I ran directly into the street and stood 
some few minutes, but all was silent, and not a 
person to be seen ; it was a lovely evening, not a 
breath of air. Mother was sadly upset about it. 
I remember she paced the room and feared some- 
thing had happened to you. She wrote down the 



SEEN, HEARD AND FELT. !2gt 

date the next day, and when you came home and 
told us how nearly you had been drowned, and 
the time of day, father said it would be about the 
time nine o'clock would be with us. I know the 
date and the time corresponded." 

In the next case three of the senses — sight, 
hearing, and touch were concerned. It is from 
Mr. Gurney's collection. 

" From Mr. Algeron Joy, 20 Walton Place, 

S. W. 

"Aug. i6th, 1883. 

"About 1862 I was walking in a country 
lane near Cardiff by myself, when I was over- 
taken by two young colliers who suddenly 
attacked me. One of them gave me a violent 
blow on the eye which knocked me down, half- 
stunned. I distinctly remembered afterwards all 
that I had been thinking about, both immediately 
prior to the attack and for some time after it. 

Up to the moment of the attack and for some 
time previously, I was absorbed in a calculation 
connected with Penarth Docks, then in construc- 
tion, on which I was employed. My train of 
thought was interrupted for a moment by the 
sound of footsteps behind me. I looked back and 
saw the two young men, but thought no more 



292 TELEPA THY AND THE SUBLIMINAL SELF. 

of them, and immediately returned to my calcula- 
tions. 

" On receiving the blow, I began speculating on 
their object, what they were going to do next, 
how I could best defend myself, or escape from 
them ; and when they ran away, and I had picked 
myself up I thought of trying to identify them 
and of denouncing them at the police station, to 
which I proceeded after following them until I 
lost sight of them. 

" In short, I am positive that for about half an 
hour previous to the attack, and for an hour or 
two after it, there was no connection whatever, 
direct or indirect, between my thoughts and a 
person at that moment in London, and whom I 
will call 'A.' 

" Two days afterwards, I received a letter from 
' A,' written on the day after the assault, asking 
me what I had been doing and thinking about at 
4 : 30 P. M., on the day previous to that on 
which he was writing. He continued : ' I had 
just passed your club and was thinking of you, 
when I recognized your footstep behind me. 
You laid your hand heavily on my shoulder. I 
turned, and saw you as distinctly as I ever saw 
you in my life. You looked distressed, and in 
answer to my greeting and inquiry, ' What's the 



COLLECTIVE CASES. 293 

matter ? ' You said, ' Go home, old fellow, I've 
been hurt. You will get a letter from me in the 
morning, telling you all about it.' You then 
vanished instantaneously. 

" The assault took place as near 4 : 30 as pos- 
sible, certainly between 4:15 and 4 : 45. I wrote 
an account of it to ' A ' on the following day, so 
our letters crossed, he receiving mine, not the next 
morning as my double had promised, but on the 
succeeding one at about the same time as I re- 
ceived his. ' A' solemnly assured me that he knew 
no one in or near Cardiff, and that my account 
was the only one he had received of the incident. 
From my intimate personal knowledge of him I 
am certain that he is incapable of uttering an un- 
truth. But there are reasons why I cannot give 
his name even in confidence. 

"Algeron Joy." 

Apparitions are perhaps more frequently seen 
by a single percipient ; there are, however, numer- 
ous well authenticated cases where they have been 
seen by several persons at the same time, some- 
times by the whole and sometimes only by a part 
of the persons present. 

Such cases are called collective. Here are two 
such cases reported to Mr. Gurney by physicians. 



294 TELEPATHY AND THE SUBLIMINAL SELF. 

First, one from Dr. Wyld, 41 Courtfield Road, 
S. W. 

'' December, 1882. 

" Miss L. and her mother were for fifteen years 
my most intimate friends ; they were ladies of the 
highest intelligence and perfectly truthful, and 
their story was confirmed by one of the servants, 
the other I could not trace. 

" Miss L., some years before I made her ac- 
quaintance, occupied much of her time in visiting 
the poor. One day as she walked homewards she 
felt cold and tired and longed to be at home 
warming herself at the kitchen fire. At or about 
the minute corresponding to this wish, the two 
servants being in the kitchen, the door-handle was 
seen to turn, the door opened, and in walked Miss 
L., and going up to the fire she held out her hands 
and warmed herself, and the servants saw she had 
a pair of green kid gloves on her hands. She sud- 
denly disappeared before their eyes, and the two 
servants in great alarm went upstairs and told the 
mother what they had seen, including the green 
kid gloves. The mother feared something was 
wrong, but she attempted to quiet the servants 
by reminding them that Miss L. always wore black 
and never green gloves, and that therefore the 
' ghost ' could not have been that of her daughter. 



SEEN BY FOUR PERSONS. 295 

"In about half an hour the veritable Miss L. 

entered the house, and going into the kitchen 

warmed herself at the fire ; and she had on a pair 

oi green kid gloves which she had bought on her 

way home, not being able to get a suitable black 

pair. 

'' G. Wyld, M. D." 

The next case is from Dr. Wm. M. Buchanan, 
12 Rutland Square, Edinburgh. 

He writes : — 

^'The following circumstance took place at a 
villa about one and a half miles from Glasgow, 
and was told me by my wife. Of its truth I am 
as certain as if I had been a witness. The house 
had a lawn in front of about three or four acres 
in extent, with a lodge at the gateway distinctly 
seen from the house, which was about eighty yards* 
distant. Two of the family were going to visit a 
friend seven miles' distant, and on the previous 
day it had been arranged to take a lady. Miss W., 
with them, who was to be in waiting at a place 
about a mile distant. Three of the family and a 
lady visitor were standing at one of the dining- 
room windows waiting for the carriage, when 
they, including my wife, saw Miss W. open the 
gate at the lodge. The wind had disarranged the 
front of a pelisse which she wore, which they 



296 TELEPATHY AND THE SUBLIMINAL SELF, 

distinctly saw her adjust. She wore a light gray- 
colored beaver hat, and had a handkerchief at her 
mouth ; it was supposed she was suffering from 
toothache to which she was subject. She entered 
the lodge to the surprise of her friends, and as she 
did not leave it, a servant was sent to ask her to 
join the family ; but she was informed that Miss 
W. had not been there, and it was afterwards 
ascertained that no one except the woman's hus- 
band had been in the lodge that morning. 

" The carriage arrived at the house about ten 
A. M., and Miss W. was found at the place agreed 
upon, in the dress in which she appeared at the 
lodge, and suffering from toothache. As she was 
a nervous person, nothing was said to her about 
her appearance at the gate. She died nine years 
afterwards." 

Sometimes an apparition seemingly intended 
for one person is not perceived by that person, but 
is seen by some other person present who may be a 
stranger to the agent or person whose image is 
seen. The following case is in point. It is from 
Mrs. Gierke, of Clifton Lodge, Farquhar Road, 
Upper Norwood, S. E., and also belongs to Mr. 
Gurney's collection : — 

" In the month of August, 1864, about three or 
four o'clock in the afternoon, I was sitting reading 



PERCEIVED BY A STRANGER. 297 

in the verandah of our house in Barbadoes. My 
black nurse was driving my Httle girl, about 
eighteen months or so old, in her perambulator in 
the garden. I got up after some time to go into 
the house, not having noticed anything at all, 
when this black woman said to me, * Missis, who 
was that gentleman that was talking to you just 
now?' 'There was no one talking to me,' I said. 
* Oh, yes, dere was. Missis — a very pale gentleman, 
very tall, and he talked to you and you was very 
rude, for you never answered him.' I repeated 
there was no one, and got rather cross with the 
woman, and she begged me to write down the day, 
for she knew she had seen some one. I did, and 
in a few days I heard of the death of my brother 
in Tobago. Now the curious part is this, that 
I did not see him, but she — a stranger to him — did ; 
and she said that he seemed very anxious for me 
to notice him. 

" May Clerke." 

In answer to inquiries Mrs. Clerke says : — 

" (i) The day of the death was the same, for I 

wrote it down. I think it was the third of August, 

but I know it was the same. 

" (2) The description * very tall and pale ' was 

accurate. 



298 TELEPATHY AND THE SUBLIMINAL SELF. 

" (3) I had no idea he was ill. He was only a 
few days ill. 

" (4) The woman had never seen him. She had 
been with me about eighteen months and I con- 
sidered her truthful. She had no object in telling 
me." 

Her husband, Colonel Gierke, corroborates as 
follows : — 

" I well remember that on the day on which Mr. 

John Brersford, my wife's brother, died in Tobago 

— after a short illness of which we were not aware 

— our black nurse declared she saw, at as nearly 

as possible the time of his death, a gentleman 

exactly answering to Mr. Brersford's description, 

leaning over the back of Mrs. Gierke's easy-chair 

in the open verandah. The figure was not seen 

by any one else. 

" Shadwell H. Glerke." 

In this instance, looking upon the dying brother 
as the agent and the sister as the intended per- 
cipient, the question arises, why was she unable to 
perceive the telepathic influence which presented 
the likeness of her brother, while the colored nurse, 
an entire stranger to him, sees and describes him 
standing by his sister's chair and apparently 
anxious that she should recognize him ? 

In another of Mr. Gurney's cases, of four persons 



REV. MR. WS PHANTASM. 299 

present in a business office where the phantasm of 
a fifth well-known person appeared, two persons 
saw the phantasm and two did not. 

Abridged from Mr. Gurney's account the cir- 
cumstances were as follows : — 

The narrator is Mr. R. Mouat, of 60 Hunting- 
don St., Barnsbury, N., and the incident occurred 
in his office on Thursday, September 5th, 1867. 
The persons concerned were the Rev. Mr. H., who 
had a desk in the same office and who may be 
considered the agent ; Mr. Mouat, himself, and Mr. 
R., a gentleman from an office upstairs in the same 
building, the percipients ; while a clerk and a 
porter who were also present saw nothing. 

Mr. Mouat goes into his office at 10:45 o'clock 
on the morning of September 5th, sees his clerk 
and the porter in conversation, and the Rev. Mr. 
H. standing at the corner of a table at the back 
of the clerk. He is about to speak to Mr. H. 
about his being there so early (more than an hour 
before his usual time), when the clerk com- 
menced speaking to him about business and 
especially a telegram concerning which something 
was amiss. This conversation lasted several 
minutes and was decidedly animated. During 
this scene, Mr. R., from an office upstairs, comes in 
and listens to the excited conversation. He looks 



300 TELEPA THY AND THE SUBLIMINAL SELF. 

at Mr. H. in a comical way, motioning with his 
head toward the two disputants, as much as to say 
'' they are having it hot ; " but to Mr. R.'s disgust 
Mr. H. does not respond to the joke. Mr. R. and 
the porter then leave the room. Mr. Mouat turns 
to Mr. H., who was all the while standing at the 
corner of the table, notices that he looks down- 
cast, and is without his neck-tie ; he says to him, 
" Well, what is the matter with you^ you look so 
sour ? " Mr. H. makes no reply, but looks fixedly 
at Mr. Mouat. Having finished some papers he 
was reading Mr. Mouat noticed Mr. H. still stand- 
ing at the table. The clerk at that moment 
handed Mr. Mouat a letter saying, '' Here, sir, is 
a letter from Mr. H." 

No sooner was the name pronounced than Mr. 
H. disappeared in a second. 

Mr. Mouat is dumfounded — so much so that 
the clerk notices it. It is then discovered that the 
clerk has not seen Mr. H. at all, and declares that 
he has not been in the office that morning. The 
letter from Mr. H. was written on the previous 
day and informs Mr. Mouat that he is ill, and 
will not be at the office the next day, and asks to 
have his letters sent to his house. 

The next day, Friday, Mr. H. enters the office at 
his usual hour, twelve o'clock ; and on being asked 



SEE A' B V SOME, UNSEEN BY O THERS. 3 o I 

by Mr. Mouat where he was the previous day at 
10 : 45 o'clock, he replied that at that time he had 
just finished breakfast — was at home with his wife, 
and did not leave the house all day. 

The following Monday Mr. Mouat meets Mr. 
R. and asks him if he remembers being in his 
office the previous Thursday morning. R. replies 
that he does, perfectly. Does he remember who 
were present and what was going on ? " Yes," said 
Mr. R., " you were having an animated confab with 
your clerk about a telegram. Besides yourself 
and the clerk there were present the porter and 
Mr. H." 

On being informed that Mr. H. was at home, 
fourteen miles' distant, at that time, Mr. R. became 
indignant that any one should insinuate that he 
did not know a man was present when he saw 
him. He insisted on calling the porter to corrob- 
orate him ; but on being questioned, the porter, 
like the clerk, declared that he did not see any- 
thing of Mr. H. that morning. 

Here, in broad daylight, of four persons present 
and engaged in business, two saw Mr. H. and ad- 
dressed him either in words or by signs, while two 
others with equal opportunities did not see him 
at all. 

The Rev. Mr. H. at home during the time had 



302 TELEFA THY AiVD THE SUBLIMINAL SELF. 

no particular experience of any kind. Ail that 
can be said is, that, it must have been about his 
usual time for starting for the office ; he had sent 
a letter about his mail which he knew would then 
be received, and all the general routine and habit 
of his life would tend to direct his mind to that 
locality at that particular time. He was ill as he 
appeared to be to those who saw his appearance 
at the office, and very likely he was negligently 
dressed. 

Why should two of those present have seen 
his apparition, and two others have failed to see it ? 
For the simple reason that, as in ordinary thought- 
transference, or in the " willing game " some are 
good subjects, or percipients, and others are not. 
For the same reason that of ten persons making 
trial of Planchette-writing, the board will move for 
only two or three out of the whole number — that 
is, in only a few would the hands act automat- 
ically in response to a subliminal self ; and for 
the same reason it may also be true that amongst 
several persons, in only a few of those present, 
can the sense of sight or hearing be effected by 
a phantasm. 

In many instances, children, and in some in- 
stances, very young children, have been the per- 
cipients — children too young to perceive any 



ANIMALS PERCEIVE PHANTASMS. 303 

difference between the phantasm and a real per- 
son, and who have accordingly addressed it and 
spoken of it as they would of a real person. 
Even animals, especially horses and dogs, have 
given unmistakable evidence — by crouching, trem- 
bling, and fright — of perceiving the same phan- 
tasms that have been seen by persons who were 
present w*ith them. The phantom being, so to 
speak, iri the air, it is perceived by those whose 
organization is so adjusted as to make it hnpres- 
sio7iabie, and to constitute, to a greater or less 
degree, what is known as a sensitive. 

Doubtless, on close examination, it would be 
found that persons capable of hypnotization, 
though they may never have been hypnotized, 
natural somnambulists, persons accustomed to 
vivid dreaming, reverie, abstraction, and kindred 
states, in other words, persons in whom the sublim- 
inal self sometimes gives indications of independ- 
ent action, are most likely to have some marked 
psychical experience. It may be only once in a 
lifetime, and this one instance may be the percep- 
tion of a phantasmal appearance. 

In bringing to a close these examples of ap- 
paritions, I wish to introduce one which has 
specially impressed me. It was the experience 
of a child — it is reported by the percipient her- 



304 TELEPA THY AND THE SUBLIMINAL SELF. 

self. The statement is singularly straightforward, 
and simple ; something was done on account of 
the vision which impressed the circumstance upon 
others who did not see it, for prompt action 
founded upon what was seen, saved a life. I 
give it in the percipient's own words, written to 
Mr. Gurney. It is from Mrs. Brettany, 2 Ecking- 
ton Villas, Ashbourne Grove, Dulwich. 

She writes : — 

" November, 1884. 

" When I was a child I had many remarkable 
experiences of a psychical nature, and which I 
remember to have looked upon as ordinary and 
natural at the time. 

" On one occasion (I am unable to fix the date, 
but I must have been about ten years old) I was 
walking in a country lane at A., the place where 
my parents then resided. I was reading geometry 
as I walked along, a subject little likely to pro- 
duce fancies, or morbid phenomena of any kind, 
when, in a moment, I saw a bedroom, known as 
the White Room in my home, and upon the floor 
lay my mother, to all appearances dead. 

" The vision must have remained some min- 
utes, during which time my real surroundings 
appeared to pale and die out ; but as the vision 
faded actual surroundings came back, at first 



SAVED HER MOTHER'S LIFE. 305 

dimly, and then clearly. I could not doubt that 
what I had seen was real. So instead of going 
home, I went at once to the house of our medical 
man, and found him at home. He at once set 
out with me for my home, on the way putting 
questions I could not answer, as my mother was 
to all appearances well when I left home. 

" I led the doctor straight to the White Room, 
where we found my mother actually lying as in 
my vision. This was true, even to minute details. 

" She had been seized suddenly by an attack 
of the heart, and would soon have breathed her 
last but for the doctor's timely arrival. I shall get 
my father and mother to read this and sign it." 
" JEANIE GwYNNE-BrETTANY." 

Mrs. Brettany's parents write : — 

** We certify that the above is correct.'* 

*' S. G. GWYNNE. 

'' J. W. GWYNNE." 

In answer to inquiries, Mrs. Brettany states 
further : 

" The White Room in which I saw my mother, 
and afterwards actually found her, was out of 
use. It was unlikely she should be there. 

" She was found lying in the attitude in which 

I had seen her. I found a handkerchief with a 
20 



3o6 TELEPATHY AND THE SUBLIMINAL SELF. 

lace border beside her on the floor. This I had 
distinctly noticed in my vision. There were 
other particulars of coincidence which I cannot 
put here." 

Mrs. Brettany's father writes further : — 
" I distinctly remember being surprised by see- 
ing my daughter in company with the family 
doctor, outside the door of my residence ; and I 
asked, * Who is ill ? * She replied, * Mamma.* 
She led the way at once to the ' White Room/ 
where we found my wife lying in a swoon on the 
floor. It was when I asked when she had been 
taken ill that I found it must have been after my 
daughter had left the house. None of the serv- 
ants in the house knew anything of the sudden 
illness, which our doctor assured me would have 
been fatal had he not arrived when he did. 

" My wife was quite well when I left her in the 

morning." 

'' S. G. GWYNNE." 

Taking, as we must, the main incidents of this 
narrative as true, we have either a simple case of 
clairvoyance on the part of Mrs. Brettany as a 
child, or else, on the other hand, the subliminal 
self of the unconscious mother hastened to im- 
press the situation upon the sensitive child, and 
with the definite good result which is recorded. 



CHAPTER XII. 



CONCLUSIONS. 



In gathering up the results of these investiga- 
tions, it must be stated that in showing their 
relation to science there is no thought of any 
detraction from the nobility and greatness of 
scientific labor and achievement in the material 
world — that is grand almost beyond expression. 
The attitude of science is conservative, and it is 
right ; but sooner or later it must awake to the 
fact that here is a new field for investigation 
which comes strictly within the limits of its aims, 
and even of its methods. Many individual mem- 
bers of the great body of scientific workers see 
and know this ; gradually the majority will see it. 

On the other hand, it must be stated that there 

is no intention of covering the whole ground of 

alleged occult psychic phenomena, but only a 

portion, even of such as relate to our present life. 

The subject of the return of spirits is untouched ; 

it is only shown that the domain of alleged 

307 



3o8 TELE PA THY AND THE SUBLIMINAL SELF. 

spiritualistic manifestations is deeply trenched 
upon by the action of the subliminal self of living 
people ; what lies beyond that is neither afifirmed 
nor denied ; it rests upon ground yet to be cleared 
up and considered ; and any facts open to satis- 
factory investigation are always welcomed by any 
of the many persons and societies interested in 
discovering what is true relating to it. 

Confining ourselves within the limits assigned, 
if the series of alleged facts which has been pre- 
sented in the preceding chapters be true, then we 
are in the presence of a momentous reality which, 
for importance and value, has not been exceeded, 
if, indeed, it has been approached by any of the 
discoveries of modern times. 

But, it may be said, your, alleged facts are not 
new ; they are coeval with history, with my- 
thology, with folk-lore, with religion. Granted that 
the facts are old, that similar ones have been 
known from very early times, how have these 
facts been treated by the leaders of thought in 
the nineteenth century ? 

That the earth goes round the sun is an old 
fact, yet it was not made patent and credible, 
even to the cultivated, much less to the average 
mind, till recent times. Evolution has been 
going on since millions of years before the human 



TELEPATHY NO LONGER A VAGARY. 309 

race came into existence — it is a very ancient 
fact, yet it is only within the memory of men still 
living that it has been found out and accepted. 
So telepathy has existed ever since the race was 
young, yet few even now know the facts, obser- 
vations, and experiments upon which its existence 
is predicated or comprehend either its theories or 
its importance. The subliminal self has been 
active in every age of which we have any record. 
Yet it has never been recognized as forming a 
part of each and every individual's mental outfit, 
but its wonderful action has either been dis- 
credited altogether, or else has been credited to 
foreign or supernatural agencies. 

But telepathy can no longer be classed with 
fads and fancies ; if not already an accepted fact, 
it has certainly attained to the dignity of a theory 
supported by both facts and experiments ; a 
theory which has attracted to its study a large 
company of competent men in every civilized 
country. 

A theory, no matter in what department of in- 
vestigation it may be found, whether relating to 
matter or mind, is strong in proportion to the 
number of facts which it will bring into line, har- 
monize and reduce to system. It is that which 
makes the Nebular Theory of the formation of 



3IO TELEPATHY AND THE SUBLIMINAL SELF. 

the planetary system so wonderfully strong ; it 
harmonizes and reduces to system so many known 
but otherwise unrelated and unsystematized facts ; 
and it is easier to find excuses or form minor 
theories to account for isolated and apparently 
erratic facts, like the retrograde motions of the 
satellites of Uranus and Neptune, than to give up 
a theory, at once so grand in itself and at the 
same time harmonizing so many important astro- 
nomical phenomena. The same is true of the un- 
dulatory theory of light, and again of the theory of 
evolution, which forty years ago was looked upon 
as a flimsy hypothesis, but which is now universally 
accepted as an established truth. Some of the 
facts are still unclassified and unexplained, yet it 
so harmonizes in general the facts of the visible 
world, that instead of a mass of disjointed and 
heterogeneous objects and phenomena, such as 
men beheld in nature only a hundred years ago, 
the arbitrary work of a blind chance or a capri- 
cious Creator, we now behold a beautiful and 
orderly sequence, progression, and unfolding of 
the natural world according to laws which com- 
mand our admiration and stimulate our reverence. 
Apart from recent studies, exactly the same 
condition of chaos and confusion exists regarding 
psychical phenomena as existed concerning the 



IMPOR TANCE OF PS YCHIC STUDIES. 3 1 1 

facts in the physical world only a hundred years 
ago. Nor is it likening great things to small 
when we compare the nebular hypothesis, or 
the theory of evolution, conceptions which have 
educated an age and vastly enlarged the boundary 
of human thought, to the theory of telepathy and 
the fact and power of the subliminal self. For if 
it was important that men should know the laws 
governing inanimate matter, to comprehend the 
orbits and motions of the planets ; if it developed 
the understanding to contemplate the grandeur of 
their movements, the vast spaces which they 
traverse, and the wonderful speed with which they 
acGomplish their various journeys — if such knowl- 
edge has enlarged the capacity of men's minds, 
given them truer notions of the magnitude of the 
universe, and grander conceptions of nature and 
the infinite power and intelligence which per- 
vades and is exhibited in it, is it not equally im- 
portant and equally improving and practical to 
study the subtler forces which pervade living 
organisms, the still finer laws and adjustments 
which govern the action of mind ? 

It has been contended by a large and intelligent 
class of writers, and those who most pride them- 
selves on scientific methods and the infallibility of 
scientific inductions, that mind is only the pro- 



312 TELEPATHY AND THE SUBLIMINAL SELF. 

duct of organization and ceases to have any 
activity or even existence when the organs through 
which it usually manifests itself have perished. 
The general consensus of mankind is a sharp 
protest against this conclusion — but the experi- 
mental proofs have, to many, seemed in favor of 
this scientific denial ; — the healthy brain in general 
exhibits a healthy mental activity, the diseased or 
imperfect brain shows impaired mental action, and 
the disorganized brain simply exhibits no mental 
activity nor any evidence whatever of the exist- 
ence of mind. Nevertheless, it is a lame argu- 
ment ; it is simply an attempt to prove a negative. 

The healthy rose emits an agreeable odor which 
our senses appreciate. You may destroy the rose 
— it does not prove that the fragrance which it 
emitted does not still exist even though our 
senses fail to appreciate it. 

But experiment and scientific methods have 
also somewhat to say upon this subject. And 
first, in August, 1874, twenty-two years ago, at 
the moment when the materialistic school was at 
the height of its influence, both the scientific and 
religious world were brought to a momentary 
standstill — like a ship under full headway sud- 
denly struck by a tidal wave — when one of the 
most eminent scientific men of his time, or of any 



TYNDALVS IMPOR TANT STA TEMENT, 3 1 3 

time, standing in his place as president of the 
foremost scientific association in the world, spoke 
as follows: ''Abandoning all disguise, the con- 
fession which I feel bound to make before you is 
that I prolong the vision backward across the 
boundary of experimental evidence and discover 
in matter, which we, in our ignorance, and not- 
withstanding our professed reverence for its 
Creator, have hitherto covered with opprobrium, 
the promise and potency of every form of life." * 

On that day the tap-root of materialism was 
wounded, and materialism itself has been an in- 
valid of increasing languor and desuetude ever 
since. On the other hand, supernaturalism in 
every form was left in little better plight. 

To thinking men of all classes this bold decla- 
ration opened up the grand thought, not new, but 
newly formulated and endorsed, that as the seed 
contained all the possibilities of the future plant 
— the ovum all the possibilities of the future 
animal, so matter, which had been thought so 
lightly of, contained within itself the germ, po- 
tency, and promise of nature in all her subsequent 
developments — of the vast universe of suns and 
systems, planets and satellites, and of every form 

*Prof. Tyndall's address before the British Association at 
Belfast, August, 1874. 



314 TELEPATHY AND THE SUBLIMINAL SELF. 

of life, sensation, and intelligence which in due 
process of evolution has appeared upon their sur- 
faces. It pointed the way to the thought of an 
infinite causal energy and. intelligence pervading 
matter and working through nature in all its various 
grades of life from the first organized cell up to 
the grandest man. It gave a new meaning to 
mind in man, as being an individualized portion 
of that divine potency which ever existed in 
matter, and which acting through constantly im- 
proving and developing organisms, amidst con- 
stantly improving environments, at length ap- 
peared a differentiated, individualized, seeing, 
reasoning, knowing, loving spirit. 

The mind, then, is of importance. It is no tran- 
sient visitor which may have made its appearance 
by chance — a concatenation of coincidences, fort- 
unate or unfortunate, but it is the intelligent 
tenant and master of a singularly beautiful and 
complicated house, a house which has been mil- 
lions upon milHons of years in the building, and 
yet which will be lightly laid aside when it ceases 
to accommodate and fulfil the needs of its 
tenant. 

Who and what, then, is this lordly tenant whose 
germ was coeval with matter, whose birth was in 
the first living cell which appeared upon the 



THE DEVELOPMENT OF MIND. 315 

planet, whose apprenticeship has been served 
through every grade of existence from the humble 
polyp upwards, whose education has been car- 
ried on through the brain and organs of every 
grade of animal life with its countless expedients 
for existence and enjoyment, until now, as lord of 
its domain, it looks back upon its long course of 
development and education, looks about upon its 
environments and wonders at itself, at what it 
sees, and at what it prophesies. Truly what is 
this tenant, what are its powers, and why is it 
here at all ? 

These are the questions which it has been the 
business of the strongest and wisest to discuss, 
from the time men began to think and record 
their thoughts until the present time ; but how 
various and unsatisfactory have been the con- 
clusions. The mental philosophers, psychologists, 
and encyclopedists simply present a chaos of con- 
flicting definitions, principles, and premises, upon 
none of which are they in full agreement amongst 
themselves ; they are not even agreed regarding 
the nature of mind — whether it is material or 
immaterial — how it should be studied, how it is 
related to the body, indeed whether it is an 
entity at all, or simply '' a series of feelings or 
possibilities of them " ; whether it possesses in- 



3l6 TELEPATHY AND THE SUBLIMINAL SELF. 

nate ideas or is simply an accretion of experiences. 
In short, the stock of generally received facts 
relating to mind has always remained exceed- 
ingly small. Psychologists have busied them- 
selves chiefly about its usual and obvious actions, 
and when in full relation to the body, ignoring 
all other mental action or arbitrarily excluding it 
as abnormal and not to be taken into account in 
the study of normal mind ; so with only half the 
subject under consideration true results could 
hardly be attained. 

Since the organization of the Society for Psy- 
chical Research, in 1882, new fields of investi- 
gation have been undertaken and the unusual 
phenomena connected with the operations of 
mind have been systematically studied. A very 
hasty and imperfect sketch of this study and of 
the results obtained has been given in the pre- 
ceding chapters, but for the use here made of 
these studies in connection with his own observa- 
tions the writer alone is responsible. In these 
studies the field of investigation has been greatly 
extended beyond that examined by the old 
philosophers and physiologists. Beyond the 
usual activities in which we constantly see the 
mind engaged — observation of surroundings made 
by the senses, memory of them, reasoning about 



THE INDEPENDENCE OF MIND. 317 

them, and putting them in new combinations in 
science, Hterature, or art — new activities have 
been observed, activities lying entirely outside 
the old lines, in new and hitherto unexplored 
fields. 

It has been demonstrated by experiment after 
experiment carefully made by competent persons 
that sensations, ideas, information, and mental 
pictures can be transferred from one mind to an- 
other without the aid of speech, sight, hearing, 
touch, or any of the ordinary methods of com- 
municating such information or impressions. 
That is, Telepathy is a fact, and mind commu- 
nicates with mind through channels other than 
the ordinary use of the senses. 

It has been demonstrated that in the hypnotic 
condition, in ordinary somnambulism, in the 
dreams and vision of ordinary sleep, in reverie, 
and in various other subjective conditions the 
mind may perceive scenes and events at the mo- 
ment transpiring at such a distance away or 
under such physical conditions as to render it 
impossible that knowledge of these scenes and 
events could be obtained by means of the senses 
acting in their usual manner. That is, mind 
under some circumstances sees without the use of 
the physical organ of sight. 



3i8 TELEPATHY AND THE SUBLIMINAL SELF. 

Again, it has been demonstrated that some per- 
sons can voluntarily project the mind — some mind 
— some centre of intelligence or independent 
mental activity, clothed in a recognizable form, a 
distance of one, a hundred, or a thousand miles, 
and that it can there make itself known and 
recognized, perform acts, and even carry on a con- 
versation with the person to whom it was sent. 
That is, mind can act at a distance from, and in- 
dependent of, the physical body and the organs 
through which it usually manifests itself. 

These propositions present an aspect of mind 
which the authorities in the old fields of psy- 
chology have failed to observe or to recognize ; 
or if they have at times caught a glimpse of it 
they have rather chosen to close their eyes and 
deny altogether the phenomena which these prop- 
ositions imply, because they found it was impos- 
sible to classify them in their system. It has been 
to a degree a repetition of the folly exhibited by 
Galileo's contemporaries and critics, who refused 
to look through his telescope lest their favorite 
theories of the universe should be damaged. 
Nevertheless, this newly studied aspect exists, and 
is adding greatly to our knowledge of the nature 
and action of mind. 

Still another class of unusual mental phenomena 



MO TOR A ND SENSOR V A UTOMA TISM. 3 1 9 

found in this outlying field of psychology is that 
known under the general name of automatism ; 
and by this is meant something more than the 
" unconscious cerebration " and " unconscious 
muscular action " of the physiologists, and some- 
thing quite different from that. 

There is, first, the class of motor automatisms, 
including Planchette-writing and other methods 
of automatic writing, drawing, painting, and 
kindred performances, also poetical or metrical im- 
provisations, and trance, and so-called inspirational 
speaking : — Second, there are the sensory autom- 
atisms ; or such as are manifested by impressions 
made upon the senses and which are reckoned as 
hallucinations. The impression of hearing a 
voice, of feeling a touch, or seeing a vision may be 
reckoned as examples of this kind of automatism. 

No other division of this newly cultivated field 
presents so many unusual and debatable phe- 
nomena. Not only do those modem mysteries, 
Planchette-writing, trance-speaking, and medium- 
istic utterances come easily under this class of 
mental phenomena, but all that vast array of 
alleged supernatural phenomena which pervades 
the literature of every nation since the time when 
men first began to record their experiences. The 
oracles of the Greeks and Romans, the daemon of 



320 TELEPATHY AND THE SUBLIMINAL SELF. 

Socrates, the voices of Joan of Arc, and the wide- 
spread custom of divination by means of crystal- 
gazing in some of its many forms have already 
been referred to and their relation to automatism 
or the action of the subHminal self has been noted. 

There is still one important class of persons 
who have wielded an enormous influence upon 
mankind, an influence in the main wholesome, 
elevating, and developing, whose relation to 
automatism demands a passing consideration. I 
refer to the religious chiefs of the world. 

As prominent examples of those founders of 
religions we will briefly notice Moses, Zoroaster, 
Mahomet, and Swedenborg. Each either professed 
himself to be, or his followers have credited him 
with being, the inspired mouthpiece of the Deity. 
There can be no doubt in the minds of candid 
students that each one of these religious leaders 
was perfectly honest, both as regards his concep- 
tion of the character and importance of his doc- 
trines and also regarding the method by which he 
professed to receive them. Each believed that 
what he taught was ultimate and infalHble truth, 
and was received directly from the Deity. It is 
evident, however, that from whatever source they 
were derived the doctrines could not all be ultimate 
truth, since they were not in harmony amongst 



GEMS OF TRUTH IN EACH. 32 1 

themselves ; but the authors of them all present 
their claim to inspiration, and whose claim to 
accept and whose to reject it is difficult to decide. 
But accepting the theory that each promulgated 
the doctrines, theological, cosmological, and eth- 
ical, that came to him automatically through the 
superior perception of the subliminal self, all the 
phenomena fall into line with the well ascertained 
action of that subliminal self. 

The truth which Moses saw was such as was 
adapted to his age and the people with whom he 
had to deal. So there came to his perception not 
only the sublime laws received at Sinai, but also 
the particulars regarding the tabernacle and its 
furnishing — the rings and the curtains, the dishes 
and spoons and bowls and covers, the rams' skins 
dyed red, the badgers' skins, and the staves of 
shittim wood. The same also is true regarding 
the teachings of Zoroaster. 

The splendid results which followed the pro- 
mulgation of Mahomet's revelation to a few insig- 
nificant Arab tribes are proof of its vital germ of 
truth and of its adaptability to the soil into which 
it fell. It developed into a civilization from which, 
at a later period, a benighted and debased Chris- 
tianity relighted its torch. 

Also the teachings of Swedenborg, notwith- 



322 TELEPATHY AND THE SUBLIMINAL SELF. 

standing the apparent egotism of the man and 
the tiresome verbiage of many of his communica- 
tions, are elevating and refining in character and 
useful to those who are attracted to them. That 
in either case an infinite Deity spoke the common- 
place which is attributed to Him in these commu- 
nications is incredible, but to suppose it all, both 
the grand and the trivial, the work of the sub- 
conscious self of the respective authors is in 
accordance with what we know of automatism 
and of the wonderful work of the subliminal self 
when left free to exercise its highest activities. 

Let us examine with some care the history of 
two examples of unusual or supranormal mental 
action, the first found in one of the earliest of 
human records, and reckoned as fully inspired ; 
the other equally unusual occurring within the 
last half century and making no claim to any 
supernatural assistance. 

The first example is presented in the first chap- 
ter of Genesis, and is a clear, connected, and in 
the main correct, though by no means complete, 
account of the changing conditions of the earth 
in the earliest geological periods, and of the ap- 
pearance in their proper order of the different 
grades of life upon its surface. That such a 
written account should have existed three thou- 



THE VISION OF MOSES. 323 

sand years before any scientifically constructed 
schedule even of the order in which plants and 
and animals succeeded each other, much less of 
the manner in which the earth was prepared for 
their reception and nurture, is a most remarkable 
circumstance, regarded either from a literary or a 
scientific standpoint. It has been criticised for 
its lack of scientific exactness, and the supposed 
error of representing light as created before the 
sun, ignoring the early existence of aquatic life, 
and similar points. But let us take our stand 
with the grand old seer, whoever he may have 
been, whom we know as Moses, who gave to the 
world this graphic account of the order of creation 
so many centuries before science had thrown 
its light upon the condition of the earth in 
those far-off ages, and let us endeavor to see 
what his quickened vision enabled him to 
behold. 

The panorama opens and discloses in an hour 
the grand progressive action of millions upon 
millions of years. 

The first picture represents the created earth 
covered with water and enveloped in a thick 
mantle of steaming mist, causing a condition of 
absolute and impenetrable darkness upon its sur- 
face. In the language of the seer, " The earth 



324 TELEPATHY AND THE SUBLIMINAL SELR 

was without form and void ; and darkness was upon 
the face of the deep." For ages the unbroken 
ocean which covered the earth was heated by in- 
ternal fires ; the rising vapor as it met the cooler 
atmosphere above was condensed and fell in one 
constant downpour of rain. Unceasing, steaming 
mist, vapor, and rain, wholly impenetrable to 
light : such were the conditions. 

At length, as the cooling process went on, the 
density of the mists was diminished ; — the won- 
derful fiat went forth, " Let light be " — and light 
was. But still the mantle hung close upon the 
unbroken ocean. 

The second picture appears. Not only was 
there light but a firmament — an arch with a clear 
space underneath it ; and it divided the waters 
which were above it from the waters which were 
beneath it. 

Picture the third. The waters were gathered 
together and the continents appeared ; and the 
land was covered with verdure — plants and trees, 
each bearing seed after its kind. Of the inhabit- 
ants of the sea the seer had taken no account. 
It was simply a picture that he saw — a natural, 
phenomenal representation. 

Picture the fourth. The mists and clouds are 
altogether dispelled. The clear sky appears. The 



INF A LLIBILITY NO T EXPE C TED. 325 

sun comes forth to rule the day — the moon to 
rule the night. The stars also appear. 

Picture the fifth. The lower orders of animals 
are in full possession of the earth and sea — fish, 
fowl, and sea-monsters. 

Picture the sixth. The higher orders of crea- 
tion, mammals and man. 

Such v/as the phenomenal aspect of the various 
epochs of creation roughly outlined, strong, dis- 
tinct, and in the main true. Not even the scien- 
tific critic with his present knowledge could com- 
bine more strength and truth, with so few strokes 
of the brush. 

Relieved of the burden of inspiration and the 
necessity for presenting absolute and unchange- 
able truth, and presenting the seer as simply 
telling what he saw, the picture is wonderful, and 
the telling is most graphic. It needed no deity 
nor angel to tell it — it was there — and the sublim- 
inal self of the seer whose special faculty it was 
to see, perceived the scene in all its grandeur. 
He also was the one best fitted to perceive the 
laws which should make his people great, and de- 
scribe the forms and ceremonies which should 
captivate their senses and lead them on to 
higher intellectual, moral, and ethical develop- 
ment. 



326 TELEPATHY AND THE SUBLIMINAL SELF. 

Next take the other example. Fifty years ago 
a young man, not yet twenty years of age, un- 
educated, a grocer's boy and shoemaker's appren- 
tice, was hypnotized ; and it was found that he 
had a most remarkable mental or psychical consti- 
tution. He had most unusual experiences, and 
presented unusual psychical phenomena which 
need not be recounted here. 

At length it was impressed upon him as it 
might have been upon Socrates or Joan of Arc, 
or Swedenborg or Mahom.et, that he had a mis- 
sion and had a message to give to the world. He 
came from the rural town where he had spent his 
boyhood to the city of New York and hired a 
room on a prominent thoroughfare. He then, in 
his abnormal condition, proceeded to choose those 
who should be specially associated with him in his 
work — men of character and ability whom he did 
not even know in his normal state. First : Three 
witnesses v/ere chosen who should be fully 
cognizant of everything relating to the method by 
which the message or book was produced. Of 
these one was a clergyman, one a physician, and 
one an intelligent layman. Second : A scribe 
qualified to write out the messages as he dictated 
them, to edit and publish them. Third : A phy- 
sician to put him into the hypnotic, or as it was 



A MODERN RE VELA TION. 327 

then called, the magnetic condition, in which he 
was to dictate his messages. 

The first lecture was given November 28th, 
1845, and the last June 21st, 1847. During this 
time 157 lectures were given, varying in length 
from forty minutes to four hours, and they were 
all carefully written out by the scribe. To 140 
of these manuscripts were attached 267 names of 
persons who listened to them and subscribed 
their names as witnesses at the end of each lec- 
ture — to some a single signature was affixed, to 
some, many. Any person really desirous of 
knowing the purport of these lectures and the 
manner of their delivery could be admitted by 
making application beforehand. 

At each sitting the speaker was first put into 
the deep hypnotic trance in which he was rigid 
and unconscious ; but his sub-conscious or second 
self was active and lucid, and associated with the 
principles and knowledge which he needed and 
which he was to communicate. From this con- 
dition he came back to the somnambulic state in 
which he dictated that which he had acquired in 
the deep trance, or what he called the " superior 
condition *' ; and the transition from one of these 
states to the other took place many times during 
each lecture. Such were the conditions under 



328 TELEPATHY AND THE SUBLIMINAL SELF, 

which Andrew Jackson Davis produced the 
Principles of Nature — Her Divine Revelation — a 
book of nearly 800 pages, divided into three 
parts : — First, a setting forth of first principles, 
which served as a philosophical explanation or 
key to the main work. Second, a cosmogony or 
description of the method by which the universe 
came to its present state of development, and 
third, a statement of the ethical principles upon 
which society should be based and the practical 
working of these principles. It assumes to be 
thoroughly scientific and philosophical. It has 
literary faults, and there is plenty of opportunity 
for cavil and scientific fault-finding ; but these 
remarkable facts remain. 

A poor boy, thoroughly well known and 
vouched for by his neighbors for his strict in- 
tegrity, having had only five months of ordinary 
district school instruction for his education, 
having never read a scientific or philosophical 
book, and not a dozen all told of every kind, 
having never associated with people of education 
except in the most casual way, yet in the manner 
just described he dictated a book containing the 
outHnes of a thoroughly sound and reasonable 
system of philosophy, theology, and ethics, and a 
complete system of cosmogony representing the 



DISCLOSURES IN ASTRONOMY. 329 

most advanced views in geology, which was then 
in its infancy — astronomy, chemistry, and other 
departments of physical science, criticising cur- 
rent scientific opinions, and in points where he 
differed from these opinions giving full and 
cogent reason for that difference. 

On March i6th, 17th, and 20th, 1846, he an- 
nounced the fact of the motion of our sun and 
solar system about a still greater centre, in har- 
mony with the Nebular Hypothesis by which he 
explained the formation of the whole vast system. 
He also announced the existence of an eighth and 
ninth planet, and the apparently abnormal revo- 
lution of the satellites of Uranus. Neptune, the 
eighth planet, had not then been discovered and 
was not found until six months later. On the 
29th of April he announced the discovery and 
application of diamagnetism by Faraday, con- 
cerning which none of his associates had any 
knowledge, and which I believe had not then 
been noticed in this country. He gave a distinct 
and vivid description of the formation of the 
different bodies constituting the solar system, of 
the introduction of life upon our planet, and of 
its evolution from grade to grade from the lowest 
to the highest — all in minute detail, in general 
accord with established scientific deduction 



33 O TELEPATHY AND THE SUBLIMINAL SELF. 

and in scientific and technical language. In 
several particulars he differed from the received 
opinions, and gave his reasons for so doing. No 
claim was made to inspiration nor to the presen- 
tation of absolute or infallible truth, but when 
hypnotized and in what he termed the '' superior 
condition," his perceptive faculties were vastly in- 
creased, and that which he then perceived he 
made known. He simply gave the truth as he 
saw it, and he commended it to the judgment 
and reason of mankind for reception or rejection. 
In other words, the subliminal self was brought 
into action by hypnotism, and then by means of 
its greatly increased perceptive powers he gathered 
knowledge from various sources quite inaccessible 
to him in his ordinary state, and seemingly in- 
accessible also to others. 

Concerning the truth or falsity of the revela- 
tions beyond what was already known or has 
since been confirmed by science, I do not assume 
to pronounce judgment ; but that this also, as well 
as the first chapter of Genesis, from either a liter- 
ary or scientific standpoint, is one of the most 
remarkable productions of this or of any age, will 
not be denied by any competent and candid 
examiner ; while the remarkable character of the 
book will be still better appreciated when the 



ANCIENT AND MODERN A UTOMA TISM. 2iZ i 

status of the theory of evolution and of the 
science of geology fifty years ago is taken into 
the account. 

Here are presented two prominent examples of 
supranormal mental activity — one in the early 
ages of man's development, when everythmg was 
supernatural, the immediate work of a god — the 
other in man's later development when natural 
law is found intervening between phenomena and 
their cause, and when it is found possible for men 
to comprehend the fact that truth, extraordinary 
and even that which had previously been unknown 
or was beyond the reach of the senses in their 
ordinary state, may nevertheless be discovered or 
revealed by other means than direct communica- 
tions from Deity. 

It is seen, then, how various and how wonder- 
fully important are the mental phenomena grouped 
under the general designation of automatism. 

Many examples of this and other classes of un- 
usual mental action have been given in previous 
chapters, not as cumulative evidence of their 
verity — that would require volumes, but simply 
to illustrate the subject and give some degree of 
definiteness to our reasoning regarding them. 
Not even all the classes of facts properly belong- 
ing to our subject have here been represented ; 



332 TELEPATHY AND THE SUBLIMINAL SELF. 

but taking them as they have been enumerated 
and hastily described, they constitute a body of 
well observed and well authenticated facts and 
phenomena of undeniable interest, and if received 
as true their importance is certainly to be com- 
pared with the greatest discoveries of modern 
science. They are, however, the very facts which 
the science and philosophy of to-day hesitates to 
accept. The only exception to this statement is 
found in the treatment lately accorded to hyp- 
notism, which after a hundred years of hesitation, 
rejection and even ridicule, has at length been 
definitely received as regards its main facts. It 
is true, however, that in numerous other instances 
the evidence regarding unusual mental states and 
phenomena is equally weighty and unimpeach- 
able ; but because these phenomena are unusual, 
marvelous or seemingly miraculous, belonging to 
no recognized class of mental action, therefore it 
IS argued, they cannot be genuine ; there must be 
some flaw in the evidence and they cannot be 
accepted. 

It is tedious going over the arguments which 
reduce this mode of reasoning to an absurdity. 
The same reasoning has been applied to every 
important discovery in physical science for the 
past three hundred years ; and if it were carried 



COLD RECEPTION OF NEW TRUTH. t^^ 

out to its logical conclusions no substantial ad- 
vance in human knowledge could ever take place, 
since every discovery or observation of phe- 
nomena outside of known laws must on that 
ground be rejected. And the history of scientific 
discoveries shows that this has actually been the 
case. The announcement of the discovery of the 
movements of the planets around the sun, of the 
attraction of gravitation, of the identity of light- 
ning with electricity, of the relation and deriva- 
tion of species in the world of living forms — of 
the discovery of living toads in geological strata 
of untold antiquity, and scores of other now 
accepted facts, were accounted visionary and 
were received with scoffs and jeers by the accred- 
ited leaders of science, because they were outside 
of any known natural laws ; and it was only after 
the study and contemplation of the new dis- 
coveries had educated and enlarged the minds of 
a new generation of men to a better understand- 
ing of the extent and magnitude of nature and 
her laws that the scoffs subsided and the new 
facts quietly took their places as accredited 
science. 

The same process is going on regarding mental 
phenomena to-day. It may require a generation 
for men unused to think in this direction to be- 



334 TELEPATHY AND THE SUBLIMINAL SELF. 

come familiarized with the thought that telepathy, 
clairvoyance, and the subliminal self, with its 
augmented powers, are facts in nature ; but thou- 
sands of intelligent people, and many accustomed 
to examine facts critically and according to ap- 
proved methods, are already so interpreting 
nature, and their number is constantly increasing. 
Such are some of the facts discovered by the 
pioneers in this outlying field of psychology. In 
attempting to explain or account for them it is 
useless to take refuge in the hazy definitions of 
the old psychologists, or to imagine that the 
secret is bound up in the vital processes which 
occupy the biologist and physiologist, interesting 
and important as those studies are ; even the 
neurologist can help us comparatively little — he 
can tell us all about diseases of the nervous sys- 
tem and how they manifest themselves, and his 
labor has earned for him the gratitude of man- 
kind ; but he cannot tell us how thinking is ac- 
complished, nor what thought is ; he cannot tell 
the cause of so normal and easily observed a 
phenomenon as ordinary sleep, much less of the 
new faculties which are developed in somnambu- 
lism. In all these related departments of science, 
in considering mental phenomena it is found con- 
venient to deny the existence of that for which 



THE SUBLIMINAL SELF BRINGS ORDER, 335 

they cannot account. Nature's processes, how- 
ever, are simple when once we comprehend them, 
so much so that we wonder at their simpHcity, 
and wonder that we ever could have failed to 
understand them ; and we learn to distrust ex- 
planations which are involved and complicated, 
knowing that error often lies that way. And of 
this kind for the most part, the attempted ex- 
planations of mental processes in terms of physi- 
ology have proved to be ; they are complicated, 
inapplicable, and unsatisfactory ; and they give no 
aid in the generalizations which have hitherto 
been so much needed. 

The phenomena in this new field at first sight 
seem heterogeneous, without system or any com- 
mon bond ; they seem each to demand a separate 
origin and field. But let the idea of the sublimi- 
nal self, intelligent, and endowed with its higher 
perceptive faculties, be presented, and lo ! all these 
refractory phenomena fall into place in one har- 
monious system. The subliminal self is the 
active and efficient agent in telepathy — it is that 
which sees and hears and acts far away from the 
body, and reports the knowledge which it gains 
to the ordinary senses, sometimes by motor and 
sometimes by sensory automatism — by automatic 
writing, speaking, audition, the vision, the phan- 



336 TELEPATHY AND THE SUBLIMINAL SELF. 

tasm. It acts sometimes while the primary self 
is fully conscious — better and most frequently in 
reverie, in dreams, in somnambulism, but best of 
all when the ordinary self is altogether subjective 
and the body silent, inactive, and insensible, as in 
that strange condition which accompanies the 
higher phases of trance and lucidity, into which 
few enter, either spontaneously or by the aid of 
hypnotism. Then still retaining its attenuated 
vital connection, it goes forth and sees with ex- 
tended vision and gathers truth from a thousand 
various and hidden sources. 

Will it act less freely, less intelligently, with 
less consciousness and individuality when that 
attenuated vital connection is severed, and the 
body lies — untenanted ? 



THE END. 



NDEX 



A. 

PAGB 

A., Miss, Perceives an induced phantom 236 

A., Miss, Her journey automatically described 188 

A. B., Clairv'oyance of 102-T05 

Alexis, " 86-87 

Anaesthesia, local, produced by hypnotism 67 

Apollonius, Clairvoyance of 80 

Apparitions or Phantasms, Collective Cases, 293, 294, 295, 299 

Automatism 151 

" Ancient and modern ... 331 

" Grades or kinds of . . . , 151-154 

" Motor and sensory 198, 319 

Automatisms, Sensory, considered as hallucinations. . . 219 

" *' manifested by hearing 220 

" The daemon of Socrates 220 

" Voices and visions of Joan of Arc 221 

Automatic writing, by Planchette 158, 180 

Mr. W. T. Stead 186-193 

*' drawing and painting by Mrs. Burton 194 

Aylesbury, Commander T. W., Case by 289 

B. 

B., Madame, Hypnotic subject 58-61, 131-135, 183 

Barrett, Prof. W. T., and the S. P. R. . . . > 5 

Bernheim, Prof., His theories of hypnotism 36 

" '* Post hypnotic suggestions, cases 63-67 

Bishop, The mind-reader 8 

Bourne, Ansel, Double personality of 119, 182 

Borderland cases. Between sleeping and waking 269 

337 



33^ INDEX. 

PAGE 

Borderland cases — visions 269, 271, 273 

Braid, His theory of hypnotism 31 

Brettany, Mrs., Vision, percipient awake 304 

Brittan, Dr. S. B., Cases reported by 99-101 

Brown, A. J., A second personality 119, 182 

Brougham, Lord, Borderland case 273-279 

Buchanan, Dr. W. B. , Case by, collective 295 

Burton, Mrs. Julietta T. , Automatic writing 194 

** *' *' Drawing and painting by 195 

" ** *' Portrait, by (Frontispiece)... 196 
" " " Psychometric powers 199 



Carpenter, Dr. Wm. B., His theory 9 

Charcot, Prof., His theory of hypnotism 33 

Chiefs, Religious 320 

'* *' Moses, Zoroaster, Mahomet, Sweden- 

borg 320 

Clairvoj-ance 74 

" Instances of 78-109 

" Ancient and modem 81 

" Nature of _ 109 

Cleave, Mr. A. H. W., and IVIr. H. P. Sparks, Phantasm 

produced by 234 

Clerke, May, Case reported by 296 

CoUyer, Dr. R. H., Case, \dsion, reported by 285, 288 

Coues, Dr. E. , Case reported by 88-90 

Crystal-gazing, Used for producing visions 200 

" *' Cases reported by IVIr. E. W. Lane 201 

" " Practised in all ages 203 

" * ' Amongst the Hebrews 204 

" " " " Greeks 205 

*• ** In the Opera of Parsifal 206 

" ♦ ' The Shew-stone of Dr. Dee 204 

*' " What it really is 208 

*• *' Experiments of Miss X 209-214 

" " Col. Wickham's pouch-belt found by.. 214 



INDEX. 339 

PAGE 

Crystal-gazing, Springs and wells used for 216 

Cumberland, Mind-reader 8 

D. 

Davis, A. J. , Production of Principles of Nature, Her 

Divine Revelation^ by 328 

Deyer, Col. J. J., His well, in relation to Crystal-gazing. 216 

Diagrams, Illustrating thought-transference 19 

Dreams, Definite impressions during 263 

" Veridical, cases of 263, 266 

Duf ay , Dr. , Case reported by 95 

E. 

Elliotson, Dr. , Mesmeric treatment by 43 

P. 

Fenton, Mr. F. D., Vision, case reported by 284 

Fitzgerald, John, Clairvoyance of loi 

G. 

Gerault, Dr., Clairvoyance, case reported by 95 

Gibert, Dr., Experiments, hypnotizing at a distance.. . 59 

Ghost-stories, Status of i 

Glissoid, Mr. B. M., Hypnotic experiments by 231 

Gurney, Mr. B., Experiments 21 

" " Cases reported, 263-266, 284-289, 291- 

294, 295, 299 

Gurwood, John, His supposed spirit 170 

** " His crest 171 

** ** In the Peninsular War 173 

Guthrie, Malcolm, Experiments in Thought-Trans- 

f erence 18 

H. 

Hammond, Dr. Wm. A., Experiments reported by 56 

Harris, Surgeon, A child's vision, case reported 282 

Hauffe, Madame, The Seeress of Proverst 83-86 

Hodgson, Dr. Richard, Case reported by 122 



340 INDEX. 

VKGB. 

Hosmer, Harriet, Borderland case. 271 

Hypnotism, In literature 2 

" Historical sketch of. 28 

" Braid's theory of 31 

'* Mesmer's theory of 29 

** Charcot's theory of 33 

" Bemheim's theory of 36-39 

Stages of 41, 51, 52 

" Therapeutic effects of 42-50 

*' Psychic aspect of 51-71 

*' Rapport in 54 

" Suggestion in 61-67 

Hypnotizing at a distance 57 

'* ** " Kxperiments by Prof. Janet 

and Dr. Gibert 58 

" " " Experiments by Prof. Richet 

and Dr. Hericourt 60 

I. 

Individual, The, Conception of 149 

J. 

James, Prof., Case examined by • 122 

Jane, Clairvoyance of 90-94 

Janet, Prof. , Hypnotizing at a distance 60 

" " Hypnotic experiments by 131 

Joan of Arc, Her voices and visions 221 

Joy, Mr. A, , Case hallucination affecting sight, hearing 

and touch 291 

Ii. 

I/. A. W., Remarkable dream or vision 263 

I/^onie, Ivcontine, I^eonore 131-135 

Liebeault, Dr., Suggestion fulfilled after many days. . . 63 

" *' Suggests a disappearance 66 

Lucidity, See Clairvoyance. 

M. 
" Marie," Clairvoyance of 95-99 



INDEX. 



341 



PAGE 

Mesmer, Anton 29 

Mesmerists, The early 31 

Mesmerization of inanimate objects 69 

Magnetized water, Detection of 71, 215 

M. L. , Clairvoyance of 105-108 

Moses, The vision of 323 

Mouat, Mr. R. , Narrates a case, phantasms 299 

Myers, Mr. F. W. H., His important work 145 

* * " " Cases examined and reported by, 

91, 124, 164, 214 

N. 

Newnham, Rev. Mr. and Mrs., Planchette writing.. 164-168 

O. 

Oracles, Greek 79 

P. 

Perception, Definition of 225 

Perceptions, which are reckoned as hallucinations 226 

Personality, Double or multiplex 116 

" " " cases of 117, 124-128 

** " in dreaming 141 

Phantasms of the Living, Cases from 231, 263, 289 

* ' Produced at a distance, case 234-238 

*• Collective cases 293, 294, 295-299 

Phenomena, Psychical, Compared with physical 311 

Planchette 154-180 

Podmore, Mr. F., Case by 288 

Psychical Research, Bng. Society for, established 3 

Puysegur, Marquis de 30 

R. 

R., Miss, and Miss V., Planchette writing 168 

Rapport, Hypnotic, Example 56 

" " Experiments by Mr. Gurney and 

Dr. Myers 56 

** " Experiments by Dr. Hammond. . 56 

<* ** At a distance 57 



342 INDEX. 

Reed, On Personality ii6 

Revelation, A modern 327 

Richardson, Mrs. M. A., Borderland case reported by. . 269 

Russell, Mrs. J. M., Case by . . . , 246-248 

Ruth, Mrs. Wickham's servant, Crystal-gazing 214 

S. 

Sidgwick, Prof. H., Vice-Pres. S. P. R 5 

'* Mrs. H., Cases reported by 88-94 

Society for Psychical Research, formation of 3-5, 316 

Socrates, Daemon of 220 

SomnambuHsm 129 

" Hypnotic 131 

Stainton, Moses, Rev. W., Phantoms perceived by. 237, 238 

Stead, W. T. , His automatic writing 186 

" " Miss A. 's j ourney automatically described 

by 188 

" '* Needs of a stranger written out by 189 

** " His correspondent in a railway car 192 

Stewart, Prof. Balfour 5 

Subliminal self. The key to many psychical phenomena. 260 

** " Sources of information of 177 

" " Theory of 257 

Suggestion, Post-hypnotic 61 

Smith, J. W., and Kate, Experiments 22 

Swedenborg, Clairvoyance of 81-83 

T. 

Telepathy, Theories regarding 250-261 

' ' Explained by the action of the sublim- 
inal self 257-261 

' ' No longer a mere fancy 309 

Thought-transference, First report on 6 

'* " Classification 11 

" *' Experiments by diagrams 18 

«» " Tested by taste 21 

«« " " objects 13 

<^ « " cards 13 



INDEX. 



343 



PAGB 

Thought-transference, Tested by fictitious names 14 

" * * " two percipients 23, 24 

Tyndall, Prof., His Belfast address, effect of 312-313 

IT. 

Urim and Thummim, A method of Crystal-gazing 204 

V. 

V. , Louis, Case of 124 

V. , Miss, Planchette writing by 159-164 

Verity, The Misses, perceive induced phantasms . . . 239-244 

Visions, Percipient being awake 282 

" Cases 282, 284-286, 289-291, 304 

Voisin, Dr., Cases reported by 124, 148 

W. 

Water, magnetized, detected by patients 71, 77 

Wedgwood, IVIr. H., Planchette-writing 168-174 

Willing game 6 

Wyld, Dr. , Case reported by 294 

X. 

X. , Case illustrating sensory automatism 184 

X., Felida, Case, double personahty 117-119 

X. Miss. , On Crystal-gazing 209 

Y. 

Young, Dr. A. K., Remarkable dream or vision 266 

Z. 

Z. , Alma, Case of 125 

Zoist, The, Report of cases in 42 



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